Brothers in Arms, Blood, and Dead Space
by Arokhsteel
Summary: Alex and Jason. Two boys, the closest of friends. Once living normal lives are some how brought to the Dead Space Universe. A place they thought only existed in fiction. Now they must fight their way through hundreds of Necromorphs in order to find the thing that they were brought there to find. Watch as they become Brothers in arms, Blood, and Dead Space.
1. Taken

**AN: I own nothing**

Prologue: Taken

My name is Alex. No point in telling you my last name. I've given up that life. I'm what you would see as an average guy. I didn't do anything of any particular worth. I was sixteen when it had gone down, now here I was with my best friend in the world, we were the closest you could get without being brothers. He had actually just turned seventeen. His name is Jason.

Again no point in telling his last name as he like me had given up his past life. He and I were just sitting in his room talking. Jason was a larger guy, always had a bit of a girth on him. His hair was dark brown and a bit on the wavy side, his lightly tanned face was always covered in his 'beard' that he refused to admit was just some hair stubble, he also was short sighted so he needed to wear glasses to cover his blue eyes.

I however was the thinner of the both of us. It wasn't that I had a scrawny frame but as my parents called it I had a wiry build; my hair was always on the shorter side and was a dark brown almost black color. My eyes were a steel gray that I had gotten from my mother's side of the family. But while we were talking I suddenly got this feeling of dread, like we were being watched and before I could turn I felt a sharp pain. I didn't have time to register the impact of my body hitting the floor before Jason joined me. After that I couldn't say I had any real semblance of time. I was just aware of voices, echo's, phantom pains. I could faintly hear my own screams.

Every sense was muted the whole time, I wondered if this was what it was like to be high on painkillers. But that thought didn't last too long. After a time I felt like I was sitting in something. I tried moving my hand but when I did I felt some resistance. Like something was covering it and my whole arm. Slowly but surely I began to notice a slight pressure on my whole body. Looking down I was met with the sight of an eerie white metal that had a distinctly familiar look.

On my chest was what looked to be a semi rib cage armor design and a metal panel that displayed some kind of information that my clouded mind couldn't make out. I looked down to my left and saw a helmet. I knew it was a helmet because I'd seen it before. It looked like the elite suit helmet.

'It can't be' I thought.' There's no way that can be-'

My train of thought was suddenly cut off when a blue screen popped up in front of me confirming my previously denied thought

**CEG MISSION ER529**

**STATUS UPDATE…**

**USG KELLION EN ROUTE TO AEGIS SYSTEM…**

**PRIMARY MISSION ASSETS…**

**…ALEXANDER ARGENT – ASSAULT, CLOSE COMBAT, WEAPONS ENGINEER AND SHIP SYSTEMS SPECIALIST…**

**…JASON STEEL - ENGINEERING AND WEAPONS COMBAT SPECIALIST TOP MARKSMAN…**

**…KENDRA DANIELS – COMPUTER SPECIALIST…**

**…ZACH HAMMOND – CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER…**

**DIRECTIVE A: LOCATE MINING VESSEL USG ISHIMURA…**

**DIRECTIVE B: DIAGNOSE AND REPAIR COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT…**

**TIME TO CONTACT POINT: 3 MINUTES…**

Jason and I were in Dead Space.


	2. Know God, No Fear No God, Know Fear

**AN: I own Nothing**

Chapter one: Know God, No fear. No God, Know Fear

A video sprung to life on the screen. Soon the message was replaced by a man in a shadowed image, his voice disguised.

_"Hello Argent."_ He said.

_"You and your friend are no doubt curious about why you are here in the Dead Space universe. The answer is quite simple: We put you there."_

I tried to move but found myself as helpless as Gordon Freeman when G-man pops up.

_" Lets start with a lesson of the universe. The fact of the matter it that there is not a single universe, but a multiverse.__You see your universe has a very unique gift, a subconscious mental link to all other universes, that your people pass this off as creativity, or imagination. When in fact there is no such thing. __Every book, story, game, or movie you have ever seen is the result of a particularly strong connection made to one of the many universes in the multiverse.__Those I represent have found a number of… irregularities in this universe that you would know as Dead Space. But not only this one but a number more universes like it have a number of irregularities in them." _

I blinked at the man's words. That couldn't be possible… could it? _"No doubt you are having a hard time to take this all in, but you must accept it soon. As we have sent you to what is known as the MOST HOSTILE and dangerous of the multiverse"_

He paused. _"__We are trusting you and your friend with the task of traveling through this universe and find the irregularities. __Currently you have been outfitted with a R.I.G in order to blend in with the group and information of the ship you will be going on as well as combat training. This has been implanted into your minds using telepathic methods. You've both been outfitted with chip that gives you the ability to communicate with one another with a semi telepathic wavelength. I will contact you when you find the first of the irregularities in this universe. I am sorry but this is how it must be. The fate of the multiverse is in your hands. Go and succeed."_

Then the line cut and I felt time return to me. I looked to my right to see a shaken Jason looking back. He blinked after looking at me then a grin broke his face. He began to giggle slightly into his hand and before I could question why he could laugh at a time like this he pointed to his head. Curious I raised mine and rubbed where my hair was. It was still there to my relief but it was shaved short. I. Never. Cut. My. Hair. I sent the giggling man a glare.

'Say one word and I will kill you.' I thought.

His giggles stopped immediately. His eyes were now on me with surprise definite in them.

'No way' I heard.

My eyes widened too as I realized I had just heard his thoughts. At this moment I took in his look. His hair was still wavy like when we were kids but it reached the back of his neck, a beard covered his strongly set lower jaw. I looked in a reflection to see that my face was sharper now, more jagged than the round completion of my childhood.

"So who was calling you two?" a voice asked.

Turning to the origin I saw her, Kendra Daniels, the computer expert. I cleared my throat and said.

"Nobody."

While hiding the surprise of how deep my voice was. She raised an eyebrow but let it be and returned to the device in her hand.

"We're just about there. Soon we will know what's gone down."

I nodded and looked to her right, to see security officer Hammond.

"Alright everyone we're here."

He said as the shuttle we inhabited came out of jump. All we could see were asteroids and the planet. Kendra took a step forward.

"All this trouble for a chunk of rock."

I answered her unspoken question. "Deep Space mining is a lucrative business. According to prospector reports that hunk of rock is a gold mine."

Hammond looked at me and nodded.

"That's right. Cobalt, silicon, osmium. Now" He turned back to the window

"Were is she?"

Jason suddenly spoke up. "Look there."

I saw the Ishimura peek out from behind the asteroids.

Kendra seemed to perk up. "So that's the Ishimura? Impressive."

I thought she sounded a little forced with the statement but let it slide.

'Be ready when we crash'

Jason looked at me 'don't you mean land?' He asked.

'No'

"Yep biggest planet cracker of her class, Looks like the corks been popped already" I said.

Jason spoke up "Why does she look all dark? I thought the comms went down not the whole ship."

Hammond nodded showing his agreement with the statement.

'What should we expect?' I kept my eyes trained on the ship.

'Necromorphs. And all their types. Ones we got to watch out for are Infectors they look like eyeless bats with a stinger on the head. Like the name implies, they make more of the necromorphs by infecting dead bodies. Slasher's a basic type that will often pretend to be dead. Don't believe it until you've shot it yourself. If it doesn't die by your bullets it ain't dead. Lurkers which are… infants that have retained their bodies they have three tentacles that shoot barbs. Pregnants, which have a stomach full of tiny necros that will latch on until shaken off. Twitchers which are military guys that have been turned. They move in a series of twitches that allow them to dodge bullets, must use a stasis module to slow them down'

I paused a moment staining to remember all of the types of the monsters. 'Leapers, who are know through their distinctly large tail. Brutes which are huge hulking masses, its weakness is on its lightly armored back. Gaurdians which are normally anchored to a wall kill it by shooting the tentacles. Dividers which are tall bodied ones. Once killed their limbs will split out and attempt to kill you. Exploders which have a sack on their arm that explodes. Stalkers, pukers, packs, tripods. Possibly the most dangerous a hunter, which regenerates its limbs and even its head. Can only be killed by being frozen or set on fire. Then there's the hive mind a huge mass that controls the whole swarm. We will only find him on the planet.' I told him. My old friend seemed to take in the information and nodded.

'Take out their limbs. It's the only way to kill them.'

Suddenly we were brought back into the conversation going on when they boosted the signal. I could hear the growls of all the necros on the ship. We went in only for the auto dock to fail. We ended up crashing. After gaining our balance, Kendra linked up our rigs and exited the crashed shuttle. I placed the helmet of the elite suit on; Jason doing the same. I looked at him.

"Stay frosty." I said my voice distorted through the helmet speakers.

We followed them off the ship. We move forward ignoring the computer. I heard Hammond tell me to hack the door pad. Giving a small nod I tapped the interface and after a second of waiting it opened wide. The room was empty and there was luggage strewn across the floor. I held out my hand activating the locate function and a holo popped out. Nothing.

'Crap' I glanced at Jason before sighing. "I'm not getting a broadcast."

Hammond looked to the console on the other side of the room.

"Alex, Jason…" We both looked at him. "Go log on to the console. See what you can find while Kendra tries to open the door."

"Gotcha" Jason confirmed. We both entered through the door and made our way over. The walls behind the console was covered in blood and gore, most of it fresh. I saw the blood first and shook my head at Jason.

"It's better if we keep shut. This will get ugly real soon."

He reluctantly nodded and went to the terminal and began typing before an image of the Ishimura popped up.

"Holy crap." I heard Jason whisper.

"Yeah she's totally up there."

One of the security turned to us

"What?" he asked.

I nodded to the image of the Ishimura. "This place is a walking corpse. Extensive damage on A-deck, at least four hull breaches. Gravity is out in a number of rooms. There's some biological substance in a number of decks. Heck there's even a few quarantine alerts. System reads the navigation system was shut down only to be turned back on by an 'Alicia Vincent' now the ship is a slowly entering a decaying orbit. The gravity centrifuge is shut down so that means this place is slowly being pulled down by several trillion tons of rock pulling us down, something is poisoning the air on a number of decks. I'm not getting a reading from almost any of the rigs for any of the crew. Some of the ones I am reading I are ether half dead or close to death. Just about all of the security officers are logged as 'KIA' which begs the question what killed them. All the life boats save the ones in the pilot's room have been ejected. Then there's the several hundred other failures. To be honest this hundred ton hunk of junk must've been blessed by Jesus to still be airborne… _spaceborne_"

The guard had the most hilarious look of horror on his face. It kept being funny till the quarantine alarm went off, and a slasher landed behind the man raising its hands. Jason slammed his fist against the glass.

"LOOK OUT!" he yelled.

The guard turned around only to be impaled on the slasher's blades. Gunfire filled the room.

"Alex! Jason! Get out of there!" Hammond shouted as he and Kendra escaped through the open elevator doors.

We moved to the blood covered door and tapped the interface. When it opened a Slasher attempted to hinder our progress only for my metal encased fist to collide with its head. Surprisingly the head flew off and hit the wall leaving the beast's headless body to begin swinging its scythe blades in random ways in an attempt to find a victim. I didn't have the time to acknowledge it before our RIGs activated and Kendra's voice came over the intercom.

_"Run you two!"_ she shouted in a frantic voice. _"Get out of there!"_

Jason scowled. "What? Really? You want us to run? I thought we were going to have a tea party with these things." He growled at her.

_"Shut up and move!"_ She replied in an annoyed tone

I shook my head signaling him to drop it as now really wasn't the time. Soon an elevator came into view and I slammed my fist against the interface. The doors opened but not before a slasher tried to jump us. Jason lashed out with his foot. Sending the necro across the room and into the wall. We got in the elevator and waited as it went to the lower level giving us a chance to catch our breath.

Once it stopped I carefully peeked out of the small car; scanning the room over for any threat. When none presented itself I stepped out and took point Jason following close behind me. A single light lit up in the far left corner illuminating a lone corpse next to a wall with the words 'cut off their limbs' scrawled out in blood. I walked up to the table, Jason not far behind me and looked at the two items on it.

Our RIGs sent out a holo showing us what the items were. **Plasma Cutter** Jason's said. I looked at mine and read the words **Energy Projection Module**. I picked up the mod and Jason the Cutter.

While he experimentally aimed the gun-like tool and fiddled with its alt fire, I began the task of setting the module on both of my hands. My RIG activated giving me a tutorial on how to use it. Apparently, it was an experimental mod that allowed for easier mining ops. The primary was a bolt of energy that acted like a temporary nail before disappearing after a set amount of time. The alt was a beam of energy around two feet long that acted as a type of energy blade to cut through hard materials.

The device had a recharge system that would build up over the span of five seconds over use but could over heat meaning it needed ten seconds to charge up fully, or I could pop in a 'charged fuse' to give an instant re-up. I clenched my hands and two eerie blue energy blades sprung from the projectors at the top of my hands. **99%** my RIG chirped. I looked over the schematics again. According to them I could hold both blades for seven minutes, one for fourteen, and about seven shots before it overheated.

Jason looked at me. "Ready Alex?" He asked.

I smirked slightly. "Nope." Was my reply

His tone took on a humorous side. "Good."

He then went over to the door and attempted to open it but couldn't.

"Cut the fuse."

He looked to his right and saw said fuse and fired a round at it. Once the blue light signaling the door was unlocked came up he tapped it. The door opened and we were greeted by the gruesome scene of a slasher tearing a man apart. I scowled and fired a bolt at the monster impaling it and sticking it to the wall. Jason checked the man but I knew he was already dead.

We moved down the halls our weapons always primed for some action.

"How many people did the girl say were on this ship?" Jason asked.

"About a thousand." Was my casual reply.

"Ah. Wondrous." I heard him mumble.

We walked down the corridors keeping our weapons primed and ready the whole time. Soon the tram system came into view and with it Kendra and Hammond on the other side. Kendra saw us first and waved at us.

_"Alex! Jason over here!"_ she said as her image sprung up on my RIG before Hammond's took up the screen .

_"Alex, Jason."_ He said in an exasperated voice. _"We ran into more of them on the way here. You two okay."_

Jason shrugged behind me. "As okay as we can be considering." I nodded slightly.

"Yeah." I said "What about you? It got pretty rough back there."

Hammond sighed. _"I hear you these things are tough and they come in packs. In any case we haven't been injured"_

Kendra suddenly spoke up. _"Speaking of those _things_ what were they? The crew?" _

I groaned. "Either that or they came from the colony. Maybe both. All we know is that whatever these _things_ are they're hostile. And they move fast."

Hammond adopted a thoughtful pose. _"If this is the crew that would mean it is some kind of an infection?"_ He asked.

Jason shook his head over my shoulder. "No that can't be it. If it were an infection then it would have affected us somehow or the currently dead crew that isn't one of _them_." He said, adding venom on the 'them'

"This has to be some kind of organism. Maybe a parasite that multiplies like rabbits in heat."

I nodded. "That would be probably the best explanation. It's the only thing that could make some kind of sense. Anyway this isn't getting us anywhere. Kendra, how's the tram?"

The technician looked at her data pad before sighing in frustration

"Data board is fried but there's another in maintenance bay. There's also a broken tram blocking the tunnel. Alex, you and Jason could access those areas from your location."

Jason nodded. "We'll get to it then."

I smirked before extending the energy blades. "Rock n' Roll" I said as the line ended.

Jason tapped the door interface and we made our way down the hall. As we walked there were a few crates full of plasma energy and charged fuses. After we were certain we collected everything in the area we went to exit to the next corridor.

The door slid open in the usual way but we were greeted to the sight of a pair of legs dangling from the ceiling. Said legs moved until a body was visible. We both reacted firing our respective weapons. **85%** my RIG chirped. It wasn't until Jason unloaded ten rounds on it we noticed that the corpse didn't have any scythe blades.

Looking at each other I spoke first.

"We never speak of this."

He nodded quickly, showing his agreement. A clang attracted both of our attention and we turned and left the mutilated corpse in its place. When we got to the other end we saw a slasher sprawled on the floor as if it was killed or rather re-killed.

"Do these things think we're that stupid?" Jason asked

I shrugged, "Let's find out." I said while extending a single blade.

I stepped up to the slasher and kicked the foot. The beast reacted instantly and with lightning speed jumped up. I swung my arm diagonally cutting the beast down the chest. Jason fired a single shot that took off its head.

The slasher then resumed its lifeless position on the floor in a more realistic and convincing position. With that done we returned to the mutilated corpse and continued down the hallway.

_"Guys."_Hammond said over the comm. _"Forget about body shots. Aim for the limbs."_

"We figured that out but thanks." I said as we came to _another_ door.

Jason groaned "Why in the heck does this place have some many doors?" He asked in an exasperated voice.

I shrugged. "Maybe for if the ship gets a hull breach they won't lose a large section of ship." I offered.

Jason just kept grumbling to himself about it though so I tuned him out. The door opened to a large open area that was the tram tunnel. As we made our way to the other side Jason spoke up.

"This looks like a stage for Mortal Kombat doesn't it?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure maybe we'll find Mileena around here, just making out with a leaper."

Jason laughed through his helmet. Then a loud howl echoed through the room sending us both into combat mode. I crouched down slightly both blades extended and my eyes scanning for any threat, Jason with his back to me his cutter primed.

"Let's move." I said

Jason only grunted his confirmation. Jogging over to the other side a loud and repeating clang made its way to our ears. The loud clanking turned out to be a malfunctioning door, with a few bloodied corpses of the people who must have tried to get through. I noticed that a stasis module was lying next to one of them. I picked it up and examined the device before tossing it to Jason who deftly caught it.

Jason not needing to be told hooked up the mod to his suit. After a minute he held thumbs up signaling his success. I gestured to the door and he took a ready pose waiting for the door to open before he let out a bolt of stasis energy that temporarily slowed the door enough for us to get on the other side.

We quickly crossed it and made our way through the corridors. Random things were written on the walls as we walked by, one in particular caught my eye that said 'Know God, No fear. No God, Know fear'

I sighed and sent a silent prayer for the people trapped in this place and died. Another for the people who went insane _before_ dying. Soon though we came to the tram mechanism. The room had three panels one in the center back of the room and two across from one another. I took the one closest to the door while Jason the one farthest from it. We both hit our buttons at the same time and the arms to extend out. Only for the farther one to return after a second.

"Try the stasis!" I shouted to him.

He nodded and tapped the button again this time firing a bolt of stasis at the arm before it could return. Jason turned back to me before straightening abruptly.

"LOOK OUT!" he shouted.

I turned around just in time to get a scythe blade to the side of my helmet. The blow threw me off balance and I fell backwards and over the railing. In an attempt to stop my fall I grabbed at the rail guard. Thankfully my hand made contact but the sudden stop in movement was less than pleasant for my arm.

"Back off you freak!" I heard Jason shout, which was followed by three shots from his plasma cutter.

One shot made contact and cut off the left arm but the others flew wide of the creature. Taking advantage of its temporary distraction I activated the blade on my free arm and swung for its legs, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter.

The beast landed on the ground with a hard thud and roared as it realized the loss of its legs. Using my free hand I grabbed the slasher's remaining arm and pulled it over. The Necromorph roared as it hit the ground below with a sickening splat.

With that danger gone, my thoughts returned to my dangling in the air. My grip on the bar was slipping and I couldn't hold on much longer. Then something happened, I'm not sure but the whole world turned blue. And everything sped up. As if it was put on overdrive. A blur filled my vision and fearing another necro I activated the blade on my hand. But not before it was a foot out of the projector an white armored hand took a firm grasp on my wrist. Colors resumed their natural hues and objects slowed.

I blinked the feeling out of my head, stunned. The armored hand pulled me back over the railing and I settled myself against the floor. I looked at my savior and was surprised to see Jason there, his form hunched over hands on his knees and panting.

"How did you get here so fast?" I asked in mild shock

He took in a few gasps of air before he held up his hand and said "Stasis"

"Ah."

I tried to pull myself up but every muscle in my body screamed at me not to. I let out a pained groan and lay still. After a minute passed I tried again and found that the pain was still there but manageable.

"Thanks" I said as I slowly stood careful not to aggravate my aching body.

I motioned for him to go back to the other side and extend the arm. He reluctantly complied and went to the panel. When the arm was fully extend Jason stepped up to the final panel and tapped it.

A loud ringing filled the air and the damaged car was pulled out of the way and quickly replaced with a functioning one.

Kendra's face popped open on Jason's RIG and she smiled slightly at him.

_"Jason, Alex you've done it. That tram was blocking the whole system. When you get the computer on line you'll be able to call the tram from the control room." _

Her eyes darted off somewhere else before looking back at him.

_"Faster the better. I can hear something crawling around out there."_

Her image quickly faded into static before Jason could get a word in.

As if on cue a slasher burst through one of the vents. It let out a guttural growl before I fired two blots at it impaling the beast to the wall. The slasher, however, was not ready to go down and thrashed on the energy projections before I fired a third bolt that nailed the beast in the head, silencing it. **55%** my RIG chirped. I pulled out a charged fuse and slammed it into the power pack in my rig. **100% **

The both of us exited out the door and back to the malfunctioning one. After a quick application of stasis we entered back into the tram tunnel. We walked down the tunnel and were close to the middle when suddenly the vent in front of us and behind us popped out.

From the one in front three slashers came out and two leapers, from behind four slashers and one leaper. I spun on my heel extending my energy blades to face the threat behind us. Jason primed his cutter at the frontal horde.

"Take 'em out." I said as I ran to my attackers.

I kept running until I was almost point blank before spinning on my heel and slashing the first one, bisecting it. I then fired a bolt at the leaper that was in mid flight, nailing it in the head and out the tail effectively splitting it in half. **85%** I then threw an uppercut across the second slashers chest, but missed by a centimeter the result being a shallow cut.

I ducked under the third slasher's blade and fired a bolt into it. The slasher was launched across the room and landed limply against the wall. Then using both blades I lunged at the final one impaling it on both. I forced both blades up and essentially cut the slasher into thirds.

The sound of the cutter filled the air and I looked to see what Jason had done.

He had apparently fired a blast that took off one of the charging slashers legs off. The result was the beast sliding all the way to him before he unloaded a second round into its head killing it. He threw a quick stasis at one of the leapers, which was in mid flight, and rolled out of the way of the second.

Once he was back in fighting position he fired three rounds at the leaper taking off both arms and its head. He then lashed out at a slasher that got to close and fired three more rounds taking out the necromorph. He then popped out the over used plasma energy and replaced it.

Jason then took aim and in rapid succession fired six shots killing the remaining slashers. He then aimed the cutter at the leaper that was about to exit it's mid air stasis and shot twice, taking off its arms. It exited the stasis and crashed unceremoniously on its back.

Jason took his time walking up to the thrashing beast as it attempted to roll itself over. When he got to it he placed his foot firmly on the leaper's chest and fired his remaining two shots into it.

I stood up and walked over to my friend. Once over to him, I glanced at the leaper's limbless corpse as he exchanged plasma energy. After he was done we both looked at each other. I held out my fist.

"Give me some." I said in a humorous tone.

Jason wordlessly pounded his fist against mine. Even though we were wearing helmets, I didn't doubt for a second he could see my smile like I could see his. Suddenly my RIG beeped and Kendra's voice flowed into my helmet

_"Alright you two, it took some work but I got the door to the maintenance deck open for you."_

I held my hand to the side of my helmet to signify her calling me.

_"Those data boards should be somewhere inside."_

I nodded and said "Got it. We'll go there now." The line cut

"What's up?" Jason asked

"Kendra managed to open the door to maintenance. We should be able to get the data boards now."

I took a quick look at the map of the ship and found the route we were supposed to take. After traveling back to where the one necro tried to trick us we found what Kendra had unlocked. An elevator.

Jason looked at me. "That things going to be full of them isn't it?" he asked.

I tapped the interface with one blade ready.

"Let's take a look and see."

When the door opened it was to our immense relief empty and we entered. Jason hit the floor we were going to and the two of us waited patiently as the car lowered itself. Kendra's voice filled my helmet again.

_"Looks like the storage room is locked. You'll have to find a key."_ She said before the line cut.

"Look for a key of some kind" I relayed to my friend as the car stopped.

"Gotcha."

When the door opened we were greeted to the sight of a catwalk that hugged the walls and a great big fall beneath us. I noticed an elevator on the other side.

"I'll go up a level and check up there." I said while pointing to it.

"You check down here."

Jason looked at me carefully before nodding. I started to exit the car before he stopped me by placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Be careful" he said.

"Always."

I made my way over to the elevator and pressed the call button. Soon the doors opened and the elevator took me to the second floor. Strange thing was I didn't see any bodies. Sure there was blood on this floor like the rest of the ship, but no bodies, I never finished the game but I was sure that there would be some kind of opposition.

Heck the only reason I knew all the types was because I looked it up on the internet.

'Find anything?' a voice in my head rang out.

I had to stop myself from jumping in alarm at the suddenness of it.

'No. You?' I thought back.

'Found the locked storage bay.' Jason replied

I looked over to the far side and saw something glowing. I walked over to it and found it was the key.

'Just got the key. Heading back down'

Then as I turned the vent next to me burst open and a slasher jumped out of it and on me.

"Crap!" I shouted

'What! What's-' he stopped and the sound of his plasma cutter firing filled the air.

While I struggled with the slasher for dominance. The necro was surprisingly strong for something that looked like it lacked all but the necessary muscle to move. It roared at me and chomped at my helmet in an attempt to end my life as I held it back.

I couldn't move to defend my seeing as my hands were keeping the blades from killing me. I then did the only thing I could have done: I head butted the slasher, the result was rather mixed. I was hitting my head against bone and the helmet and that slightly disoriented my and gave me an uncomfortable pain in my neck, it also got me the time I needed to fire a bolt at the creature catching it by the body.

It wasn't over yet because as the beast rolled from the impact I got up and jumped onto it. From then on I began to assault the necro with my fists. With each and every hit I swung harder and harder until on one fateful punch I crushed the monster's skull in.

It stopped its struggling after that but I wasn't satisfied. I quickly stood to my feet and stomped on the dead corpse until I felt its rib cage collapse. I however didn't take a moment to rest and ran to the elevator to go to the second floor.

Jason hadn't stopped firing his cutter. As the car descended I readied my blades for some kind of confrontation. When it stopped and the doors opened I saw Jason toss a still alive and thrashing necro over the railing into the abyss below.

He then turned to me and tilted his head slightly.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

I looked down at my once white elite suit to find the armor was stained red with blood had bits and pieces of gore hanging off it.

"Beat a slasher in a fist fight." I replied simply, as I took a glance at the area.

Slashers and leapers alike littered the ground. Having been mutilated in various ways, their blood staining the brown metal of the cat walk. Jason reloaded his plasma cutter.

"How much you got in there?" I asked

"Including this 35 shots." He said. "What about those fuses?"

I shrugged. "Only three."

"So 21 shots?"

"Basically."

I moved up to the storage and used the key to open the storage; the first thing I noticed was that the bench looked like a Brute had smashed it and the power node storage was open and not trace of said node to be seen. I sighed at the loss of a chance to upgrade our gear. I picked up the data board. We made our way back to the control room. Jason placed the data board in its slot and I called the tram.

Both of our rigs beeped before Hammond's face took up mine and Kendra's Jason.

_"Good work. We'll be heading to the bridge."_ Hammond said from my projection.

Kendra took a thoughtful look _"Strange the quarantine just lifted."_

Hammond waved it off. _"Whatever was in the flight lounge must have left. That's lucky for us. Both of you go back to the Kellion and prep it for launch. We'll find out what we can from the bridge and meet you there."_

Kendra suddenly spoke up. _"If we live that long! You're out of your league Hammond; we're going to die out here!"_

Jason snorted. "Wow. Great job with that. Just what we need; a pessimist."

Kendra scowled at him _"I'm only being realistic you son of a-"_

_"Your lack of confidence in me and my plan is noted Ms. Daniels." _Hammond interrupted her in an attempt to defuse the situation. _"But I have a mission to complete and that is exactly what I am going to do. With, or without you. Do we understand each other?"_

Kendra glared, whether it was at Jason or Hammond I couldn't tell _"Just get us out of here alive"_ she growled out before both our lines cut.

We ventured back to the Kellion, with no resistance from the necros it was in relative silence. Eventually we got the call telling us that Hammond and Kendra were at the bridge.

When we got into the Kellion Jason went in to check the systems while I stood guard. After a second an explosion went off and Jason came running out of the ship as it exploded and fell down in a fiery blaze.

My RIG chirped and Kendra and Hammond popped up on it.

_"Alex! What happened down there?"_ Hammond demanded.

Kendra didn't give me the chance to answer _"That was our ride home. It was the only way off the ship."_

_"Kendra…"_ Hammond started to say but she wasn't having any of it.

_"No Hammond! This changes everything!"_

Hammond held up his hands in a placating manner._"Just let me think."_ Kendra just looked away from him and back at me.

_"Can you access the command computer?"_ Hammond asked.

Kendra looked at what I think was the screen and shook her head. _"There's an executive lock on all primary systems, without the captains authorization I can't access them."_

Hammond wasn't deterred. _"Well where's the captain?"_

Kendra looked over the data before answering.

_"Here he is. Captain Benjamin Mathias. Location Med labs. Status…"_ She paused as a sour look came across her face. _"Deceased"_ she finished bitterly

Hammond looked at her with surprise. "_What how?"_

I heard Jason groan at the question and I repressed my urge to do so to as well. I mean with all that's happened would it be too difficult to believe the good ol' cap is dead?

_"I can't access that information."_ Kendra growled out. _"Go to the medical deck and you can find his RIG. With his access code I could crack this computer wide open."_

Hammond sighed. _"okay you two change in plans I'm sending the tram back to you go to the med deck and-" _

_"Wait." _Kendra said cutting him off. _"Do you hear that?"_

There was a clanging before they got up and ran. Soon after a leaper filled the screen as it blacked out. We quickly went back and followed the path Kendra and Hammond took until we came to the tram and surprisingly the store. Using the little credits we had picked up Jason bought some more plasma energy and I got three more fuses.

After the both of us climbed into the tram and hit the interface it lurched forward as it took us to the med bay. I sighed and took off my helmet taking a seat, Jason doing the same. The two of us could only imagine what we would find, or what that man said we were sent to find. After some silence Jason spoke up.

"I can't believe that this is real." he looked at the helmet in his hands.

"This is it." he continued "This isn't some messed up dream. This is real."

I groaned and touched the area where the one slasher had managed to lay a hit on my helmet. Had it not been there... it would've taken my jaw off.

"I think the answer to that question was pretty obvious after i got hooked by a slasher." I grumbled bitterly

Jason didn't seem to notice my low spoken words "We die here... it's for real."

"I know." I growled

Jason just kept going "No 1-ups. No extra lives. No respawn. No loading the last save, if we die-"

I jumped up from my seat, my armored fists clenched "I KNOW!" I roared at my distraught friend, shaking him out of his stupor.

"I KNOW THAT IF WE DIE HERE WE'RE GONE FOR GOOD! DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?! I'VE ALREADY CAME CLOSE TO DIEING TWICE TODAY! WITHIN TWO MINUTES OF EACH OTHER! I KNOW PERSONALLY THAT THIS IS REAL! I DON'T NEED YOU REMINDING ME!"

Jason just looked at me his eyes wide with shock. I'm not sure why I burst on him. Maybe the emotional stress of nearly being successfully killed by creatures that weren't supposed to be real had finally caught up with me. Maybe it was the realization that our lives were in the greatest danger they could ever be in. Maybe both. I just needed a vent, and Jason had been there.

I blinked once or twice before muttering a 'sorry' and sitting back down, averting my eyes from him in shame of my outburst. An awkward and uncomfortable silence permeated the air between us.

"Sorry dude." Jason suddenly said. I looked at my friend as he continued. "I shouldn't have just given up like that."

I frowned at his words. "You didn't give up. You were just scared. Still scared if I'm reading you right. I had no reason going off on you like that. I'm sorry."

Jason waived my apology off. "No you were right to. You've nearly..." he hesitated with the word. "...died twice now when I've been fine. Sure a few scrapes but nothing life threatening." he smirked slightly."Besides you've had a couple of necros hit you, I had a whole slew of the freaks on me. So yep you are totally the only one who knows the stakes."

I laughed dryly before shifting in my seat. Another few minutes passed by and i let out a growl. "This thing is worse than the elevators in Mass Effect." I grumbled out causing Jason to let out a bark of laughter.

"So what do you think?" Jason asked.

I shot him a questioning look.

"About this G-man Wannabe."

I held back the laugh that came with his comment and thought for a moment. "Not sure. It's too early for me to get a good read on the guy. For now we play along until we can get some straight answers. As of now he holds the cards. Lets wait to see his hand before we make any judgements."

Jason nodded slightly. We would just wait for him to make a move and react.

I looked at the interface impatiently and blanched when i saw the words displayed

**Med-labs, time in station: 15 minutes  
**

Jason followed my eyes and saw the interface as well. He let out a long and over dramatic groan as he and I stood our helmets in hand.

"We never speak of this." I said.

Jason just nodded his head before speaking again.

"Hey man?"

"Yeah?"

"No matter what I'm glad-"

I quickly cut him of by a light slap to the arm.

He looked at me questioningly.

"No chick flick moments." I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Ha. Fine. Jerk." he said placing his helmet on his head.

"Virgin." I replied as my helmet slid on.

We stepped off the tram into the med bay. It was time to find us a captain.


	3. The Horde

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 2: The Horde

A tall man stood in front of the large video screen displaying the two boys, Jason and Alex. His eyes were cool and calculating as he took in the boy's every step, twitch and word. He had put them in there and it was his job to watch their progress. So now he watched the two and their progress. As of now they were going over to dealing with a pack of necromorphs that had stumbled upon them.

They were an effective and efficient team. It seemed that the telepathic implanting of their combat experience was enough to help them survive these meager beasts. Unacceptable. They will not be able to save the multiverse if the very most they can do is survive, in order for them to be capable of that, they must dominate.

"Councilor?" A voice asked behind him

Turning his head the necessary amount to glance at the origin. He was met by a pair of electric blue eyes.

"What is it?" he asked in a stern tone. He gave orders to not be disturbed under any circumstances.

The person didn't even flinch at the tone and spoke in an even, controlled voice.

"The others are questioning why you would give the fate of the multiverse to those _children_." The last word was spoken with particular venom. Even though the aging process made the two physically twenty five, mentally they were still that of teenagers.

"They say that our current forces would be sufficient in dealing with this threat without their help."

The councilor turned back to the screen just in time to see Alex slice a puker that had gotten too close down the middle.

"No they would not." He said simply

The messenger tilted their head and took a step forward, their face illuminated to be seen as a male. His hair was shaved short and a scar ran over the corner of his mouth. He sneered at the screen and though it Jason as he reloaded his Plasma Cutter.

"Why would you say that? We could easily deal with all these 'necromorphs' and be done with it. Just as we could easily deal with all the other irregularities." He said dismissively.

The councilor didn't break his glance from the screen.

"Tell me. Were we the first to learn of the multiverse?"

The messenger was taken aback by the question but recovered quickly.

"Unknown sir but it is-"

"Exactly."

The man blinked and wondered why the councilor had interrupted him.

"Sir?" he asked uncertainly

The Councilor still held gaze with the screen.

"Unknown. It is unknown if we were the first. These anomalies are not as random as my fellows think. Technology we have never seen is being slipped into universes; key factors that made those universes unique are being taken and placed in others. This is simply too systematic for it to be random. That means that there is another, like us, who can travel through the bridges that connect the multiverse and, thus far have totally evaded detection by any of our scans or probes." He said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Thus that would mean that they know of us and have a way to counter out forces. These boys however," he gestured to the two on the screen as they continued to battle the necromorphs "are and unknown factor. The boys through this will become what is needed to save the multiverse."

"But sir-"

"That is all I am speaking on the subject. Leave."

The scarred man suppressed a growl and gave a stiff salute.

"Yes sir."

Ω Ω Ω

I panted as the final slasher hit the ground. I couldn't believe the force they were in. I kicked a nearby corpse out of the way as I made my way over to Jason who was using a large crate as cover from puker vomit, and lurker barbs. He from what I could see was mostly unscathed, I however, being a frontline fighter with the type of weapon I had, took more than a few hits. I was pretty sure my RIG was red and I was out of med packs. My armor looked pretty torn up from all the punishment it had been taking. I began to wonder if there was something better than this suit or I could make some kind of schematics for a new one that was meant to take more damage. When I finally made my way over to him I took a seat next to him and joined him as I tried to regain my breath.

"You good?" he asked.

I shook my head as I gestured to a patch of my armor that had been hacked off.

"Not really. A lurker barb got me good right here, and I'm out of meds, you go any?"

He nodded and passed a medium pack. I caught the device and thanked him before sticking it into the slot on the side of my leg. A wave of relief hit me as I felt the wounds close up and fatigue leave my aching body.

"Can you believe it?" I asked. "By my count there were fifteen slashers, eight pukers, and five lurkers." Jason nodded slightly. "I didn't think they could come in such force. Isaac had it easy. These things never decided to gang up on him like that."

"I hear you man." Jason groaned out as he rolled his shoulder. "Freaks are really pushing that charge and overwhelm tactic. Still we would be dead if it weren't for my stasis and your kinesis."

A grunt was my confirmation to the information; our modules had given us the necessary edge needed to take them down. I roughly pushed myself up and stretched my tired muscles.

"Well." I began. "We won't get those RIG codes just sitting around. Let's move."

Jason sighed but nodded before forcing himself up. We looked at the barricade that blocked the way to the Clinic. I activated an energy blade and began the task of cutting through the makeshift barricade. It was a simple job in and of itself, but what I didn't expect was that once I had taken it down was the sudden impact to my face. Frantic I began to pull at what held me prisoner, but the grip it had on me was strong as iron. I then heard the plasma cutter go off and the sound of shattering glass. A second shot went off and the grip loosened. In a quick movement I threw my attacker off my helmet clad head, expecting to see some necro facehugger. But was surprised to find it to be-

"A robot." Jason whispered.

I blinked with surprise as I looked at it. It was relatively small, about the size of a lurker, four long mechanized legs connected to a flat disc like body, shards of glass sticking out of the top. I looked down at my chest to see a silver liquid seep into my armor through the gashes in it and in turn seeping into the cuts that hadn't closed. I panicked and attempted to wipe the liquid off and prevent it from getting further into my wounds. This proved unsuccessful as the liquid _moved, _and it movedfast, much faster than I could react and it practically leapt into my wounds.

I let out a load and pained groan as my veins started burning like there was fire in them instead of blood.

"Alex!" Jason shouted in alarm as I thrashed on the floor. Unsure what to do he took out a small med pack and slammed it into my leg. If anything that made it worse as my groans turned into screams. What used to feel like fire turned into napalm as the meds flooded my system; whatever had invaded my bloodstream was eating through the meds in what had to be the most painful way possible. Jason tried holding me down but was thrown of as the muscles in my legs contracted painfully. The result was that I mule kicked him across the room. Then my whole body was thrown into spasms, my muscles felt like there were being torn apart only to be put back together. Every nerve was on fire, bones felt like they were slowly cracking and splitting. I began cursing myself as my body seemed to refuse to fall into unconsciousness from it all. Despite it all I somehow managed to push myself up. I stumbled but managed to catch myself on a nearby wall. Almost without thinking I lashed out with my hand hitting the wall. I felt my knees buckle and I hit the ground hard.

Ω Ω Ω

(Jason P.O.V)

I let out a pained groan as I attempted to stand from the mule kick Alex had delivered to my chest. Operative word being tried, I felt like I was a quarterback that got tackled by a linebacker. I couldn't feel my plasma cutter in hand which meant that his kick must have forced me to release it. After a second I heard the metal clang of Alex's boots scuffing across the floor, I guessed it must have been an attempt on his part to stand. I managed to get into a sitting position when I saw it. Alex's hand clenched into a fist and shot forward into the wall. The impact echoed throughout the room. Not even a second after he collapsed hitting his head. Despite myself and my aching and defiantly cracked ribs I rushed to my friend.

"Alex!" I shouted. He didn't respond, his body limp in my hands. I shook him in an attempt to wake him only for him to remain limp. I raised my hand, hesitating for only a second before I smacked the side of his helmet. A heavy silence filled the air as he had yet to stir.

"You jerk." I growled out. "You had to go and die didn't you?"

_"He isn't dead."_

I would have jumped at the sudden voice but found my body frozen in place. Then seemingly against my will my head rose from Alex's still form. There he was the G-man wannabe, or, at least a full length hologram of him. His face was still shadowed.

"What?" I asked

_"He's not dead."_ The ability to move my body returned to me, with this I turned my still friend over to see his RIG health bar full.

"Oh." Was my rather lame reply. Turning to the man I pointed at the small robot's remains. "What is that?" He inclined his head to the machine and was silent for a moment before his gaze made its way back to me. _"Unknown. It however is one of the anomalies that had been detected, there are more of it on the planet's surface, and at least three more here in this deck." _A blue line flowed from his feet to a nearby door. _"Follow your locator to medical storage. There you will be capable of holding yourselves in."_ I loved hearing that like I loved taking a bullet to the nuts. I gazed at the plasma cutter that lay forgotten on the floor a few feet away from me. I was going to need a different weapon. The cutter was good for fighting off a couple but in the fight like the one we had had earlier, it just wasn't reliable. I needed a weapon that could dish out damage and dish it out fast. Only problem was our lack of funds. Even if I took the entire amount we had procured thus far it would only be enough for a few plasma energy clips.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when a metal clang met my ears. I spun my fists up in a defensive position only to find the man still there, a pitch black pulse rifle at his feet; at least, I looked like a pulse rifle.

I looked at the man suspiciously before taking up the weapon. My RIG pinged, signaling I'd picked something up in my inventory. I checked not taking my off him until the pale blue screen appeared in front of me. I was greeted to the sight of what were called pulse rounds, around six hundred of them. My eyes widened slightly before looking at the ammo count. **200**. Eight hundred rounds. While most would be excited at the notion, I found myself scared out of my mind. He didn't seem like the guy to give charity, only what was totally necessary. That begged to question; what in the world would make him think that this was necessary?

He never offered explanation because his form vanished soon after. I scrambled to my cutter and digitized the weapon before I took a firm hold of Alex and pulled him over my shoulder. Not seconds later a door on the far side _opened_ and what looked like a dozen slashers began to limp through the open doorway. Using my free hand I launched a stasis blot at them, slowing the beasts for mere moments. I made my best attempt to run through the corridors while locking the doors behind me; my hope was that this would slow them down on their most direct route. After what felt like an eternity, I found myself in medical storage. I quickly found a small room with a table big enough to hold Alex. It could be easily defended against the necros. I set him down on it and began scouring the other rooms for what I could. I found at least a few dozen med packs and a thermite if what the RIG told me was true. Basically it was a tool that could be used for melting. I wasn't entirely sure what something like that would be doing in medical storage, but then again I didn't have the time to wonder because of the sounds of scrapping that filled my ears.

I quickly returned to my somewhat fortified position and lifted the black pulse rifle aiming out of the gaps in the blinds. A crash was heard, followed by a fleshy thud. The sounds escalated, I attempted to count the number of thuds in a hope to get some semblance of their numbers. It was however useless as the thuds were too numerous and the screeches didn't help any. Then they finally came over the railing and I nearly dropped my weapon in shock, there were _dozens_ of them, slashers seemed to be coming in whole packs. Lurkers covered the walls, Pukers seemed to be the less numerous of the three but that wasn't exactly comforting. All of them looked to me with their terrifying visages. Lurkers brandished their tendrils, slashers screamed at me, pukers spat out rivers of vile.

My grip on my weapon tightened. 'What are you doing?' I thought. 'Are trying to scare me?' the weapon began to rattle slightly as my frame shook. 'You think I'll just roll over and let you kill me?' I clenched my teeth as I glared at the swarm.

"You want us?" I spoke in a tense whisper. "WELL COME AND GET US YOU FREAKS!" I roared at the horde. "YOU WANT TO WIPE THE TWO OF US OUT? THEN COME GET SOME!"

I aimed at the closest of them, a slasher; my aim was steady, my breathing controlled. 'I will not give in.' I growled in my head. 'I'll give them hell before I let them take us.' A flurry of shots rang out. The whole horde seemed to quite instantly as one of their own collapsed, missing its head and arms. They all seemed to watch as their infected brother crash against the ground.

I had drawn first blood, I wouldn't be the last.

Ω Ω Ω

The councilor glanced at the screen. It had displayed the results of what had made its way into Alex. The results were not what he would have expected. From the little he managed to take from the small drone the two had destroyed, to put it simply it was self replicating nanobots that filled the container. When he had them introduced into a subject he found something even more interesting, the Nanobots when introduced in small dosages of three million, or just under one ounce of the liquid formed bots, resulted in an extreme change in physiology.

A rat that was formally missing a leg and blind could not only navigate a complex maze with ease but also grew its limb back. Even more it seemed that the Nanobots gave the rat the ability to scale walls like a spider. With a dog that was given more of the Nanobots it gained the catlike reflex to land on its feet and a venom gland. His interest peaked by the results, he gave a dose to a security officer who volunteered. The result was increased bone and muscle strength, his sight became somewhat perfect, he could smell things that were previously mute to his human nose but as a drawback the smells would occasionally overload his brain. In layman's terms the nanobots forced the person to undergo a state of evolution

He glanced at Alex, with slight concern; he had taken the whole estimated full batch of seven hundred trillion. The councilor glanced at the screen showing the Jason as he fought off the horde of Necromorphs. The boy was putting up a good fight but for them to survive this Alex would need to survive this, but he had doubts, the whole batch could easily tear the boy apart from the inside, of which it was most likely doing.

Ω Ω Ω

I quickly reloaded my rifle and returned to firing at the group of slashers that were attempting to claw through the locked door. I'd lost count of how many I'd killed with that one magazine, and they were still coming at me in force. But if I had any advantage, it was my position. They just couldn't get into the room. If they couldn't claw it down I was good. A sudden and loud thud echoed through the room. Shaken by the sound I looked to its source. My eyes widened at the form before me, I could faintly hear Alex's words on this beast run through by head. 'Brutes which are huge hulking masses, its weakness is on its lightly armored back.' Two more landed right beside the behemoth. If they couldn't open the door, it seemed that they would just smash it down. I turned to the three brutes and began firing at their exposed fleshy parts, only for the bullets bounce off their armor. The first of the brutes charged forward, ramming itself into the door, crushing those in front of it. The door held but I needed to find a way to get kill them as my current position prevented me from getting to their weaker parts. I fired at the beast while it continued to pound the doors. I needed to find a way to kill it. Fast.


	4. Follow the Leader

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 3: Follow the Leader

Zachary Hammond liked to think he was a patient, cool, and collected man. He never made a choice he hadn't thoroughly planed out. Now however these _things_ were putting a strain on that mindset. It sounded like a simple enough task, cut into the emergency wing and get the captain's RIG codes. That is until that strange drone attacked Alex, and that liquid somehow managed to get into his system. Even worse all scans on the boy he tried to get via his RIG were somehow being remotely blocked. Now the two were holed up in Medical Storage with a group of them attacking. Hammond liked to think he was a patient man, but this was not something he could wait out. Suddenly the terminal next to him beeped. He took a tentative glance at the screen and blanched.

The Captain's RIG… was moving.

Ω Ω Ω

Kendra glanced at the screen she had hacked. Unknown to the three she hadn't needed the captain's codes, in fact she had been given an executive code to all of the ships systems, the creatures attack gave her the perfect chance to slip away. Her original mission was to find and retrieve the marker, and with the healthy sum of 40 million credits they paid her and the promised 60 million after retrieval, she was more than happy to do so.

But now… with the new development of this drone, and that liquid, she might just get extra for it. Of course she couldn't take that one, the two idiots had destroyed it, but, she was willing to bet that there were others like it somewhere on the ship.

She took a glance at the screen displaying the systems wipe, **13%**. Kendra let out an irritated sigh. "This will take a while." She said. While she would love to search for the extra pay but she needed to stay here and wait for the download and purge to complete, and destroying a whole forty terabytes of data on the ship would certainly take time. Idly taking out the pistol she had been able to sneak with her, she checked the chamber. It did its job but wasn't like the weapon Jason had picked up or the one he was using now, but it worked. She froze realization hitting her. 'Where did he get that pulse rifle?' she asked herself. At first she hadn't thought much of it, now that she really did think about it she wasn't sure why she didn't explore it. One second he was holding an unconscious Alex the next he was standing with that pitch black pulse rifle in hand. No static, no interference, just from one stance to another in an instant. Like someone had skipped a few seconds of film.

What model was that anyway? She'd never even seen a model of pulse rifle. Kendra narrowed her eyes at the image of the boy, he didn't seem all to surprised by the appearance of the weapon. She pressed in a command to see their RIG camera, **Access Denied**. She bristled at the rejection; she didn't take rejection well. She typed up one of the executive codes she had been given. **Access Denied**. Kendra growled, she had been told these codes would open up any RIG system of those she had with her on the team. She tried again on Alex's RIG only to come up with the same result. Her grip on the gun in hand tightened, _both _of them? How was the operative thought in her mind. They weren't anything not one thing was remarkable about them. She tapped the holographic interface and brought up their files.

She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding when words began to form on the screen. 'At least their files aren't classified.' She thought. Shaking herself she glanced at Alex's and found nothing of any particular interest, he was born on the ship USG Terra, a small repair ship on the way back to earth. He was enlisted in the marines for a short time and became a weapons engineer and ship specialist, also racking up in a number of assault drills. Jason who was even less interesting was raised as a farm boy before joining the marines. The two met up on one mission and soon after dropped out and joined the CEC. It struck her as odd that they would give that up for what they had now.

Something was off about those two, the way they walked, how they held themselves before the initial attack, it was almost expectant, then the thing attacked they reacted so quickly. Too quick. It was almost like they were expecting the undead monsters to come through the ceiling. Kendra sighed and looked back at the screen showing the two's location. She would need to keep an eye them, they could prove to be a hindrance, or maybe some kind force to eliminate her before she returned. Housecleaning. She shook her head and began typing in a scan for the drone.

Ω Ω Ω

(Jason's P.O.V)

I set in a third charge of pulse rounds as the first of the brutes hit the ground, dead. The second and third still waiting by their landing zone, it was unsettling. Unlike the others that were still moving, their movements constant and sudden, yet somehow… coordinated. It was eerie, those two remaining brutes just standing, like two nightmare golems. I raised my weapon and fired experimentally at one of their heads. The round impacted its head causing what was left of its brain to splatter. Other than that it remained impassive.

"Come on." I whispered, "What are you doing? Never waited before, why now?" I didn't really expect an answer of any kind, just some form of indication of what I was supposed to do. My RIG beeped suddenly, I jumped so high that if the necromorphs watching had emotions of any kind I'm positive they would have laughed.

_"Jason!"_ Hammond's voice called. _"We've got a problem."_

Growled before responding, "Oh really? A problem, I never would have guessed it. If you weren't aware I have problems too." I took a careful look at the horde of undead in front of me. "Like say the some two dozen of these things staring me right in the face!"

Hammond however was not deterred, _"The captain's RIG is moving!"_ I twitched slightly "Care to repeat that statement?"

_"His RIG is moving and it's coming to you!" _

I groaned, this just keeps getting better and better. "When will it get here?" I asked _"Not when. It's already there!"_ I cut the line just as a scream was heard, a dark form landed with a thud at the head of the horde. It was noticeably different from the others, while the ones we had encountered thus far looked like they had been chewed open, this necro looked no worse for wear; the skin was more or less intact with a few rips and tears, two sets of large blade arms protruded from the beasts back, its skin pitch black and eyes that were red as blood and a permanent glare that could put Superman's heat vision to shame.

The unnamed necro turned to the others and screamed in their direction, occasionally throwing what I thought was a gesture to a few spots. Almost immediately after the beast finished its screeching the remaining necros filed in. Pukers stuck in groups towards the back while the remaining slashers stood in front as a shield, giving gaps as to give a line of fire for them, the two brutes stood on the sides with the remaining lurkers clinging to their backs, their tendrils hovering over the brute's heads.

My eyes widened as I saw the positions, I looked at the unnamed necro with surprise and fear. It just gave the others _orders_. This thing just popped up and gave them orders and they followed them. Like a- "Leader."

I began to grit my teeth, before this was difficult, now I was questioning my odds. I decided to give the alt fire on this thing a try. Aiming at the commander like necro which stood still in front of the horde, I squeezed the secondary trigger. The kick back almost knocked me onto my back but I managed to stay up. A small ball about the size of a baseball sailed through the air on a collision course with the necro. At the last moment it leapt into the air, I would have yelled in frustration had the ball not impacted the line of slashers behind the Leader and exploded decimating them. A grin broke through my face 'Grenade Launcher? Nice' was my thought. Alex groaned from behind me, voicing his discomfort. Reluctantly I broke my gaze from the necromorphs that stood still and looked at my friend. 'Hurry up and get better' I thought as I turned back to the necros aiming my weapon. 'If you don't I'll kill you.'

Without further hesitation I fired the grenade stored in the rifle. It sailed through the air before a scream from the now out of sight Leader echoed. Almost instantly a Lurker barb impacted the small explosive setting it off in mid air harmlessly. I let out a growl, it learns too, just peachy. I couldn't fire at them with grenades now because the Leader had caught on to the 'explosives bad' lesson. I let loose a flurry of shots, they might be able to hit the grenade, but let's see them dodge bullets. Almost immediately after I begun firing the pukers and lashers responded in kind. Slashers moved in quick movements intercepting my rounds taking them for the pukers. The brutes moved remarkably fast for something of their size, keeping their backs away from me and thus making it harder to hit the lurker's tendrils.

I ducked under a barrage of barbs as they made their way past where my head had been. I lowered the rifle and clenched my hand, lighting it up with the blue energy my stasis. Standing up, I unleashed two shots of the energy, freezing the two giants and with them their passengers. With the two giants frozen in my stasis field I fired the alt fire twice at them. The two grenades impacted the brutes, but to my annoyance it did little more than annoy the massive beasts and jostle the lurkers aboard.

I growled and aimed to fire again when a stray barb slammed into my chest, pushing me back. I grunted at the impact before yanking the projectile out my chest, only for a second to impact my shoulder, then the side of my helmet. The resulting impacts pushed me into the table holding my friend. I was going to duck and roll back to my cover when I saw a puker vomit glob sailing through the air mere feet away from me.

For what felt like an eternity I stood there as I saw the acid based projectile close the distance between me and it. Every instinct in me screamed to duck under the hit as there was still time to do so, but my brain was screaming me to take the hit for fear it would hit my unconscious friend and do even more damage.

In that short three second span of what felt like three years, the acid impacted my armor immediately beginning the task of eating through the armor I wore, and my skin under that. I resisted the urge to scream as I felt my skin slowly dissolve, before rolling back to my cover. I reached for a med pack and slammed it in the slot on my leg. The medical solution began to heal my acid induced wounds. This however proved to do more harm than good as the acid was still in its prime when the medical agents began repairing skin. The result? I was caught in the everlasting not-so-sweet spot of my skin burning and healing all at the same time. Even worse to my luck the acid kept going for an extra few seconds after the pack had ended. I'm not familiar with the medical term but I was messed up beyond reasonable recognition.

"Well bloit." I groaned as the acid finally died down. I was quite sure if Alex was conscious he would have looked at me like I was crazy, and given what had happened in the past hour, I wouldn't blame him. I peaked over the counter only to duck under when a lurker barb bounced off it. I checked the counter on the rifle. **29**. That was at least one more grenade and three slashers if I played this right. The Leader's scream pierced the air, soon followed by the heavy steps of one of the brutes.

I smirked under my helmet and readied the rifle. It had ordered one of the brutes to come towards me, possibly to knock down the door. I gauged the distance of the behemoth as it made its large steps to me. My eyes made their way to the thermite that sat forgotten on the floor. Trying to make as little noise as possible I grasped the cylinder and examined the red and white surface. One thing drew my attention; a white beeping light on the top. Felling slightly curious despite my situation I pressed my index finger to it. A mechanized voice suddenly spoke up. **Warning Thermite primed, reach minimum safe distance of two yards. 15 seconds until detonation.** I panicked slightly the room was small and didn't have the space to make any point a safe place, with my lack of viable solution I tossed the cylinder overhead and out the window. The heavy steps ceased as the voice spoke again. **10 seconds**. I peaked over the edge to see the brute looking down at the device questioningly. **5 seconds**. A lurker came down off the beasts back and prodded the thermite with a tendril. **Detonation**. A loud electronic siren filled the air before the thermite ignited, sending white hot flames across the two yard range. The result was the brute and its passengers being incinerated. I ducked under the counter using it as a shield against the flames that did reach me. I quickly took advantage of the moment and aimed my rifle at the temporarily stunned and fired a grenade at the beast. The ball sailed through the air and impacted the giant; this explosion had the more desired effect then the previous. It tore the beast apart and propelled it onto its back crushing its ill-fated passengers. I reloaded the rifle with a fresh charge. Now that the brutes were gone I could easily get this over with. Suddenly the leader landed alarmingly close to my entrenched position.

It moved fast, faster than I could have fired. In an instant it was looking me in the eyes at point blank range. Its blackened human hands lashed out and gripped me by the neck before pulling and tossing me out of the room. I landed with a heavy thud, rolling in an attempt to recover, but the Leader was on me in an instant. I dropped my gun when it tossed me for the second time. The slashers and pukers were on me in seconds. I pulled out my plasma cutter and fired randomly, hoping to score some kind of damage against them. I knew I'd scored some hits if the squelching sounds were anything to go on. The cutter clicked signaling the plasma energy charges over use. I moved to reload the gun like tool when a lucky strike knocked out from my hands. A stray blade cut across my chest, my arm and then my helmet.

The blows themselves weren't pleasant, but the acid burn I'd gotten mere seconds before made it even worse. I crawled away from the group as I tossed all the stasis energy I had stored, which apparently only meant four bolts. That had managed to freeze some of the area effect of the bolts but the Leader had managed to evade the attacks and leapt at me, all four blade-arms poised to kill. Time slowed down as the creature descended, ready to kill, and then from out of nowhere something impacted the Leader sending it sprawling across the floor. When I looked at it I saw a two foot long pole of energy sticking out of the beast's side. I shifted my gaze to the origin of the attack to see Alex, his hand held out still glowing with energy.

"Miss me?" he asked, his voice slightly strained and rough, despite his attempt at sounding humorous. The Leader growled at him and brandished its blade-arms. Alex gave the creature a one over before activating hit blades. He charged at the group of now stasis free necros and just started swinging. They didn't stand a chance, even though he had just regained consciousness, and should have been disoriented he wasn't. Also the fact he was basically swinging lightsabers at a clustered group it wasn't any real surprise that he took them down so quickly.

When Alex was finished with the group he began to walk to the Leader. I imagined that seeing its subordinates dealt with so easily put the beast off as it promptly turned around and ran for the nearest vent. Alex however wasn't having it as he launched an energy bolt at what must have been the first cowardly necromorph, nailing it in the lower back, which in turn propelled the beast into the wall, were it stuck, and mere inches away from the vent.

I was hard pressed not to laugh at the sight of the Leader frantically clawing at the wall, in an attempt to gain purchase on the edge of the vent. Alex strode up to the thrashing necro before bisecting the monstrosity. The bolt holding it dissipated soon after and the now dead Leader hit the ground with a meaty thud.

Alex looked at me, and for a moment we said nothing. Then after what felt like an eternity he spoke. "So… how 'bout them Yankees?" I let out a long groan, which in turn caused him to laugh. "So what is this thing? The forums I've read have never mentioned a slasher-like necro with four blade-arms that looked almost human." He said as he examined the corpse.

I shook my head as I collected my weapons. "No idea, Hammond says it's the captain's body but it came in here and gave the other Necros orders." Alex's head spun to me so fast I could swear he got whiplash. "_Orders?_" he said incredulously.

I held up my hands, "I chak you not, it gave them orders and they followed them." Alex looked at the corpse again for a second before his head shot back to me, "Wait_what_?" he asked his voice filled with disbelief.

"They followed them?" I half stated half asked.

"No before that."

"It gave them orders?"

Alex palmed his helmet in what I guessed was exasperation. "No, in the beginning."

"I chak you not?"

Then he just looked at me. After thirty seconds he calmly turned, walked up to me, and punched me in the arm. Hard. This elicited a less than manly yelp of pain. Before I could voice my surprise and anger, he then smacked my helmet clad head. I let out a low groan as my head began to throb. 'Perfect.' I thought miserably. 'Acid burn, slashes across the chest, arm, and now I had a headache, fantastical.' Alex who I knew had heard the thought just kept looking at me with what had to be a deadpan look behind his helmet.

"Don't ever. Say that again."

I grumbled under my breath and went to collect the codes. After collecting them and sending them to Hammond he told us to go to Engineering. Having slain the majority of the necros on this level of the ship, so the trip was uneventful.

Ω Ω Ω

Kendra looked at the interface, she had found that there was two more on the ship and at least a dozen on the planet's surface if their damaged scanners were anything to go by. She took a glance at the systems purge progress. **29%**. Kendra let out a groan; at this rate the two could fix the whole ship. At least the two were somewhat entertaining. She sat back in her chair, if she couldn't get the drones she could at least watch these two get killed while trying to fix the ship.


	5. Engine Problems

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 4: Engine Problems

(Alex P.O.V)

We stepped off the tram as it came to a halt at the engineering level. Jason was still rubbing his arm from the punch I gave him a few minutes ago. I was really weird, how could that little love tap I gave him could cause this much discomfort, it was no different from all the other times I'd punched him for being an idiot.

One thing I had to admit is that I felt heavier than normal, which was strange as the elite suit felt even lighter. I shrugged it off, now wasn't the time to think over trivial things. Soon my RIG link opened up to show Hammond.

_"Good to see you're awake Alex."_ He commented, I shrugged, _"I hope you're at one hundred percent because the engineering deck needs some looking at. As you already know centrifuge is offline, which means we are gradually being pulled down by a few trillion tons of rock."_

I nodded my head, signaling him to continue.

_"There's also a problem with the engines. They're running on empty and something's blocking the main booster. I need the two of you to fix the centrifuge, refuel the engines. I'll try to find what happened." _Jason nodded behind me and readied his plasma cutter. "Sounds easy enough. If we don't run into any complications we'll be home for dinner." He joked.

Rolling my eyes behind my helmet at him it told Hammond we'd get it done. His image blinked out and we began our way through the sector. Soon we came to an open room, we looted the place and came up with a few thousand credits, we used said credits to buy some more ammo, and med packs. After Jason was convinced he had enough plasma energy and I had enough fuses he began to unlock the door to the main booster. I however checked the center room. It looked like a control center of some sort; maybe a place one would report engine troubles. A hologram of Aegis 7 in the far right corner, a body slumped in a chair to the left. I moved to leave the room when I stepped on something. Looking down I noticed it was an audio log. I picked the log up and pressed the play button. Soon a man's voice spoke.

_"_Personal log: Acting Chief Engineer Jacob Temple. It's been two day's since they pulled the planetup" his voice hitched slightly"two days since the captain died."He took in a breath, as if trying to stop from hyperventilating. "The panics, the riots, they were nothing compared to what came after. Our friends our co-workers, started coming back… changed… coming back to-to kill us drag us away. Rucker disappeared this morning and I have to assume he's dead. My crew their-" he paused before continuing "their starting to crack. I'm trying to keep an eye on them but right now we have bigger problems. We're losing fuel and if it that isn't fixed, orbital decay will begin in then hours, and Danvers and I are going to fix the leak. Temple out"

The log ended. I was quite impressed at how the guy had managed to survive so long, and with a large group of people.

"It's open." Jason called. I sighed and dropped the log, silently wondering why it was there in the first place as I made my way to my friend. Along the way we only ran into one necro playing dead. It took only a few seconds for the creature to become more convincing. Soon however we were halted when we came to the next door. It wasn't locked, but it was covered in this organic goo. I activated my energy blade and went to cut it only for the blade to uselessly burn at the hardened goop. Jason looked at me then the goop.

"Must be lined with cortosis." He joked. I gave him a funny look through my helmet. "Cortosis?" he tried again. The look persisted. "The rare crystal that resists lightsabers?" I merely tilted my head to the side. He let out an exasperated groan, "Cortosis, from Jedi Knight II, Jedi Outcast? Luke Skywalker, Kyle Katarn? ShadowTroopers? The game just before Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Never got to those." I said simply. Jason sighed "I'm ashamed to know you." I shrugged again, mostly to annoy him. "Says you. How do you think I feel? I know someone who watches a show named after a cleaning detergent, where the main character's name is 'strawberry'" I smirked at him as he stiffened from the comment.

"Ichigo! Not strawberry, Ichigo!" I waved him off as I pretended to examine the obstruction.

"Whatever you say fanboy." Was my sarcastic reply. That really set him off. "Otaku!" he yelled at me. I laughed loudly, sometimes it was too easy I almost felt guilty. Almost. I turned back to him and began to walk back to the room we'd passed. "I'm going to check out the area see if there isn't anything to help us cut through that."

Jason, while still irritated sighed and nodded. "And I'll look around here." When I came to the room I searched as best I could but only found some plasma energy and fuses. I was about to give up when a glow caught my eye. I took a step towards it but stepped on something. I looked down to see an audio log. 'A second time?' I asked mentally. 'I need to watch where I'm stepping.' Suddenly Jason's voice rang out in my head 'What?'

'Nothing' I replied quickly as I picked the log up and pressed play. At first it was silent but was soon filled with grunts, screams and clearly insane rambling. "What's going on!" I recognized that voice, it was from that Temple guy. "It's , it's Henderson…"a second voice said. "he's crazy! Pulling his own teeth out!"

"Henderson! For god's sake!" more yelling until a solid impact was heard, soon followed by a low thud.

"Oh, god. Is he dead?

"Relax, he's alive. But he hit that door pretty hard."

"Man… why would he do something like that!? I don't get it."

The log ended. I placed the log down and grasped the source of the glowing. My RIG lit up and popped an image. **Schematics: Energy cutter.** I looked at the data board questioningly. I remembered that there was a bench out in the hallway, maybe I could use this to upgrade my energy blades. I moved quickly to the bench, ignoring Jason for the time being, I searched for a place to insert the data board. After a few seconds a found a small slot, I inserted the schematics into said slot and the bench unfolded displaying the upgrades. In a giddy fashion I detached the module and began my modifications. I had to thank the mysterious representative guy for the implanted knowledge he'd given me on weapons.

The thought crossed my mind that he might have put something else in my head. It would be rather awkward to find out that I suddenly preferred men over women if I ever tried to pursue a relationship. I shook my head of the distracting thoughts and ignored Jason's roaring laughter as he heard the thought over the link. 'I hate karma' I growled causing him to laugh even louder.

After a minute I reattached the newly upgraded module and activated one of the blades. It came out about the same length but was wider and met to a peak, kind of like an actual blade but not quite. This didn't do anything in particular to the energy bolt function but that was fine with me, I used the blades more anyway. Using the upgraded blade I began to cut through the goo. After I had removed the goo we ventured in to find the refueling mechanism.

Ω Ω Ω

Hammond looked over the captain's records as he waited for Alex and Jason to fix up in engineering. Everything was here, meaning every little dirty secret of Captain Mathias. Apparently the Ishimura wasn't even supposed to be in this system, they were here illegally.

'But if that were true why would they send us for a communications black out?' It didn't make any sense. They weren't supposed to be here so why would they be sent and how would one know of them being here. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully before he opened up the colony report. Apparently this all started when a '**Red Marker**' was found, and according to reports from the planet physiatrist the people who had been exposed to the marker, slowly deteriorated, becoming paranoid, hallucinating.

He typed in a search for any information on the Red Marker. What he got was the Captain's personal log book. Curious he pressed play. Mathias's face engulfed the screen.

"Personal Captain's Log: Day fourteen of our tour to Omega 9. We were in the process of a mining operation in the Omega system when I got a call from the board. A Red marker had been found on Aegis 7. I was ordered to take my ship and under the ruse of planet cracking, retrieve the marker. The church will be quite pleased with its discovery, our holy relic. We are in route to the system and shall arrive in two days. Mathias out."

The image was replaced by a more tired looking Mathias. His posture not as straight as it was in the previous log, bags under his eyes.

"Personal Captain's Log: Day three of our retrieval in the Aegis system. We have begun preparations for cracking the planet, pulled the marker on to the ship and into the cargo bay. Using my status I've restricted visitation of the marker to all but a handful, myself among them. I spent hours relishing in its beauty. It's even more magnificent than we are told in the scripts. Though I began hearing whispers in the air around me, when I looked to find the origin I found none. I wonder if the marker speaks to me, giving me divine wisdom."

The log cut, and before a third could begin a beeping caught Hammond's attention. The fuel gauge was filling, while it stopped at the quarter mark it was enough to stabilize the ship for the time being. He activated his RIG communicator and told the two of the success, but then he saw something, out of the corner of his eyes, in the shadows, a pair of yellow glowing orbs. They seemed to stare at him with a glee he could not place before they vanished. He blinked and shook his head. 'Must be the fatigue.' He reasoned as he returned to the log.

"-Day ten of our retrieval in the Aegis system. Alicia, my head of security continues to pester me of the state of the colony. A state I am well aware. She has been talking of the marker, saying it it the source of these murders. As if such a holy relic could do such a thing. I spend more and more time with it now, and it speaks to me. Tells me not to trust her, tells me she wants it destroyed. Well I won't let her. If we are to transcend death we must bring the marker to earth. She has not made any move as of late, but, when she does it will be her last."

Hammond stared at the screen as it went blank. The captain had been spending time around the marker and began to show signs of the symptoms of those affected by the colony. And what of these murders on the colony? He tried to start a search but came up with **Data missing**. How could it be missing? Hammond growled in frustration before leaning back into his seat. If he hadn't lost sight of Kendra this would be so much easier, and simpler.

Ω Ω Ω

(Alex P.O.V)

I sighed in relief as oxygen flooded the room we inhabited. After refueling the ship we went straight to the centrifuge. After fighting through a group of necros that ambushed us while in the decontamination chamber, we began the task of realigning the centrifuge. It took us a minute to figure out the way to do so but when we did it was simple. The hard part was avoiding the thing. That took a while and I'd nearly run out of air but the cycle had now given me more of the precious gas.

Jason opened the door and began to walk out, intent on getting as far away from the vacuum of space as one could when on a space ship. But then suddenly a large thick arm like appendage appeared out of nowhere and took hold of his leg, and began to drag him away. I broke into a run and jumped on the limb hacking at it with my energy blades. This though seemed to have little effect as it continued to drag the two of us to a large hole in the wall. Frantic I swung for what looked like a softer spot and was rewarded with the sound of energy cutting through flesh. The 'fingers' released Jason and I was flung off it into the wall as the partially cut limb retreated without its catch.

We just lay there unmoving for a moment before I spoke. "How many times can you say you saved your best friend from being raped by floormaster?" Jason gave a mirthless but somehow grateful laugh. We pushed ourselves to our feet and began to move again. Our journey back was uneventful, although I wonder what purpose there was to have a decontamination room right before the centrifuge. When we entered the elevator my RIG opened up and Kendra's face took the screen.

_"Alex! Jason! Can you hear me? It's Kendra."_ She said as her image began to clear up. _"They attacked, I ran for it and Hammond, he just disappeared." _Hammond's voice carried over into the call. _"Kendra? Where are you?"_

_"Nice to see you're alive Hammond, I managed to barricade myself in the computer core, I can hear them moving outside but, I don't think they know I'm here."_ I quirked an eyebrow. "How could they not know you're there? From what we've seen they don't rely on sight as I've taken the head off one and it kept coming, and there's no way it could be hearing or smell, mostly because those senses are shot. Meaning they have to have a kind of sixth sense to locate victims, and there's the fact that no matter what they always find us." Kendra's eyes narrowed ever so slightly I almost didn't catch it. Almost. "Even more why barricade in the computer core? That place must be filled with vents to keep it cool, and these things have a fetish for vents let me tell you." She growled lowly before replying. _"How should I know? I just ran and barricaded myself in the core,"_

"What'd you even use for the barricade? Not a lot in this ship isn't bolted down, or at least part of the ship." Jason said behind me.

Ω Ω Ω

Kendra fought to keep a calm face as the two specialists attacked her with questions. Why were they being so difficult? "Listen, I don't have time to explain myself, or my actions. I hacked the door that will lead you to the ignition terminal. Just go there and light up the engines." She said quickly. Although their helmets were still on, she could practically feel their suspicion. After a few seconds Alex let out a 'thanks' and cut the line.

Kendra let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The two boys were turning out to be more and more trouble than they were worth. She glanced at the quarantine locked doors and vents. This was all that was potentially keeping the necromorphs away from her. Contrary to what she had said they necromorphs knew exactly where she was, they just couldn't get in and the thick walls kept their banging quiet. She began to continue her typing in an attempt to speed up the purge, which was now holding steady at **37%**. Barely fifteen minutes passed before the P.A system announced the engine ignition.

_"The engines are online and functional." _Hammond said over the link. Kendra frowned, they were moving too fast. _"Finally some good news!"_ she activated her RIG link. _"Alex, Jason, come up to the bridge and we'll figure-"_

"Wait, wait!" she said trying her best to sound worried. "We're not safe yet. When the ship returns to orbit it will pass through an asteroid belt. The asteroid defense system is offline, without it the ship will be torn apart!" Hammond scowled and cursed as the new information was brought to light. Kendra had originally withheld it because she had thought, or hoped from your view point, that they wouldn't be able to get the engines up so quickly and maybe buy her more time. Jason's voice came over the link, an undeniable irritation in it. _"And what possessed you to tell us this after we activated the engines? Why not before so we would be able to defend ourselves without needlessly risking the ship?"_

"I just came across it; I didn't think there would be something wrong with it!" Kendra shot back in an attempt to cover her tracks.

_"Right."_ Said Alex in a sarcastic tone. _"You just so happen to now look over all the things that are wrong with this ship. I mean we've only been on it for a few hours! The damage should be the very last thing you check when you find yourself in the computer core! It's only the center of all data input and output. So of course you only now think to check for something that could potentially kill us all!"_

Kendra didn't like a lot of things. Clients skipping out on paying her, complete idiots, but the one thing she hated more than most was being talked down to.

She growled, "Oh if you're so infallible then why didn't you see it when you checked the ship status?"

_"Maybe because one of those things popped out and started killing before we could get further down the list."_ Jason stated as if it were obvious. She also hated being out done. _"Enough!"_ Hammond roared, cutting their argument off. _"We don't have time for this! Jason Alex come up to the bridge, you can do more good here than I can. In the mean time I'll try to sort out the A.D.S."_ almost thankful for the interruption, Kendra began to formulate a plan, she need to switch suspicion off her and on to Hammond, it might get them off her back long enough to concentrate on the purge.

"Apparently this all started with some kind of artifact." She said slowly, "It was found on the planet and is only referred to as the 'Marker'. I don't know why we'd be sent to repair a ship with it on unless…" she paused, leaving it in the air. She opened her mouth to speak but Alex terminated the link. Had she not been on a ship full of man-hunting monsters, she would have screamed with frustration.

Ω Ω Ω

(Jason P.O.V)

I sighed as I walked up to the tram. Kendra was becoming more and more irritating, first we lose contact with her for hours and then she just pops out of nowhere? I don't buy it. She has some agenda going on. I silently cursed myself for never playing dead space; if I had I might know what she was planning. While Alex had gotten the game he never had, found the opportunity to play it with school and all. I shook my head of the thoughts and began to enter the tram when colors seemed to lose their luster. A heavy groan filled the air and I spun to meet it, my plasma cutter aimed at the potential threat.

What I saw was a great mass of shadow, while the form itself was hard to pick out it looked like a big guy with a hunch back. The shadow turned, or at least looked like it turned. When it came to a full 180 I found myself staring at eight glowing red orbs. A mass of tendrils extended until they met together to form a makeshift arm with a cone like ending where the hand should have been. It let out a loud groan before charging faster than I could react, cone hand pointed as if to impale me. Then just before contact it phased right through me. Disintegrating into black ash as it passed through my body harmlessly. The color returned before I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Alex, his helmet off looking at me questioningly.

"You going to stay out here all day? Come on we gotta move!" he said. I nodded my head as I followed him back in. 'Did I imagine that?' I wondered to myself. Alex didn't respond, which must have meant he was too focused on something to notice. I held the region of my chest that would have been impacted had the shade not disappeared. The feeling when it passed through me, it felt like my veins had suddenly frozen over. I sighed and shook my head, 'must be the stress'. Alex must have heard that as he snapped out of inner workings to look at me. 'What?" he asked. 'Nothing just thinking to myself.' He ahhhed and returned to his own private musings. I grumbled lightly at how he somehow managed to figure out how not to project his thoughts. I leaned back into the chair and closed my eyes, hoping to get some form of sleep before we arrived.


	6. It's Raining Asteroids

**AN: I own nothing.**

Chapter 5: It's Raining Asteroids

(Alex P.O.V)

I stood and stretched as the tram came to a complete stop on the bridge level, rolling my shoulders in an attempt to get the stiffness out. The ride had been one of the longer ones since we went from the back of the ship to the front. I slid my helmet back into place before I nudged Jason. He shook his head slightly and made an audible yawn; soon he stood as well and shook the tiredness out of his system. I took a step off the tram Jason close behind me. We didn't make two feet before Hammond's image came to life on my RIG link.

_"__Alex! Come in. Kendra's right the A.D.S is completely shot, I'll need the two of you to help fix this."_ He said. I groaned slightly, "Who volunteered us to do the heavy lifting?" I asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

Hammond gave me a sympathetic look. _"I'm sorry but the two of you have the most experience with ship tech, and combat training. You've survived so far by fighting them while Kendra and I have hidden. The two of you have the best chance to do this."_ While not entirely happy I begrudgingly agreed. That image board had shown that the two of us were specialist soldiers/engineers, so it kind of made sense we would go through the ship. Didn't mean I had to like it.

_"__Kendra if you can hear me go through the ship logs, see what you can find. It sounds you have better access there then me." _Kendra's face occupied the screen seconds after her name was mentioned. _"When were you going to tell us about the artifact Hammond? This marker"_ she asked in a suspicious tone. I blinked.

'She couldn't' I thought, Jason shook his head 'She wouldn't.' was his confident reply.

Hammond took the screen again. _"I don't know anything about that. It's referenced in the captains personal logs. He seemed to worship the thing, but other than that all I know is that they brought it on the ship." _Kendra's voice took on an alarmed tone_ "It's on the ship?!"_

Hammond nodded slightly. _"In cargo. They think it's of alien origin. The captain thought it to be some holy relic that would let them 'transcend death' but I don't have a clue what it is."_ Kendra took up the link, her eyes narrowed. _"Really CEC didn't know anything about it?"_ I almost groaned. 'She isn't-'_"You're lying."_ Jason let out a loud groan 'She did'. I palmed my helmet before speaking."Wonderful. A pessimist and a conspiracy theorist." Kendra glared at me. "Besides, why are you acting all exempt from suspicion? We still haven't forgotten how you disappeared for hours, came in at the most opportune of times, motioned that you somehow barricaded yourself in the computer core, not even explaining how you would have gotten there, unarmed." The glare intensified, as if daring me to continue. I continued undeterred by the weak glare.

"Then tell us to activate the engines, just so happen to not look over that the A.D.S is out until after we have activated them. Now here you are accusing Hammond of knowing about the marker before the mission began. Even if he did what would it matter? So the ship has an alien artifact on it, I'd be much more concerned how the man-hunting monsters got on the ship. So with that in mind. Back off." Kendra looked like she wanted to bite my head off. She would have to wait in the line of the several hundred other necromorphs on the ship. The link began to turn to static before Hammond's face occupied it again

_"We've entered the debris field! Come up to the captain's nest I explain there. Hammond out."_ He said before the link closed. Jason and I moved through the corridors, the trip was short and uneventful. I activated my locator and a long blue line lead down past the elevators that stood in the middle of the bridge. Curious I opened the map to see the nest was one level below us and at the head of the bridge. Satisfied we began to move to our destination until a loud banging filled the air. The bridge shook with every bang until an asteroid broke through the ceiling and down through the floor. The impact caused us both to lose our balance and we fell backwards. My communicator lit up,

_"I'm reading an impact at your feet."_ Kendra said. _"There's heavy damage but containment looks solid and life support is stabilized, we got to get the A.D.S working."_ I resisted the retort that was going through my mind and stayed silent as the comm. shut off. We pushed ourselves back up and moved at a quick pace to the nest.

Ω Ω Ω

When we opened the doors, Hammond came into view, his plasma rifle out and primed. When he saw us he visibly relaxed. "Alex, Jason. Man you two scared me." he said as he let out a breath. "This place is making me jumpy. With the asteroids coming through the roof…" his voice trailed off as he directed his attention to an orange interface. Behind that was a large holo of the planet and the belt surrounding it. I shrugged as I took a few steps up to him while Jason sat down against a wall. "Good, with what's sharing the ship with us you should be a little jumpy."

He just sighed and continued to interact with the interface for a minute before turning to us. "Look. I know Kendra doesn't trust me but, I don't know anything about a marker or anything else that I haven't learned from the logs. This was supposed to be a repair mission. Plain and simple." I nodded my understanding. He seemed truthful, and besides it didn't matter any way. Alien artifact or not, it didn't help us to survive worrying about what was probably some rock carving.

"So what is that?" Jason asked from behind me. Hammond sighed in exasperation as he gestured violently at the interface. "This is the A.D.S. I can't tell you the trouble it's been giving me. Main power routing is shot and those things haven't been helping as they've torn the whole system apart. Still I can fix these boards but as I said, main power routing is shot. The two of you will have to reroute them manually through three junction boxes, from there you can activate the primary cannon. But first you'll need to activate the atrium elevators from bridge security. Use them to get to the junction boxes." I nodded and turned to the door as Jason pushed himself up.

"By the way." we turned back to him. "Be careful. I saw something out there. I don't know what. I only caught a glimpse. But it was fast." Jason shrugged and said "Don't worry about us, how tough could it be?"

A feeling of dread hit me harder than a runaway freight train. I glared at Jason through my helmet and made a mental note to hit him when I got the chance. Jason however didn't seem to notice my glare and turned back to the elevator. We made our way over to the security office. The interface was red signaling its locked state. Not entirely sure what to do I was about to signal Hammond on the comm. when a large tendril burst through the locked door. Both of us jumped backwards our weapons ready. The tendril squirmed in the hole it made before retracting. A few seconds passed with nothing happening. Suddenly the door burst outwards, splitting in half and flying right towards us. Jason dove out of the way of the large piece of debris, I however didn't react quickly enough and the object slammed into me and pinned me to the floor.

As I lay there in pain I wondered, 'What could do that? The only thing I could think of would be a brute but they don't have tendrils.' I looked at where the door once was and my eyes widened, in the place of the door was a large necromorph, it's body was that of a full grown human, or what _was_ a human, and now resembled a leaper. The major difference was the eight tendrils that were now being used as legs, holding the beast high off the ground, the tail that would normally be swishing across the ground, was now held high over the beast poised to strike. The necromorph stepped out of the door way just in time for the quarantine alarm to go off and the containment shield to slam downwards. It looked around the room before its rotted eyes found me. Moving with an unnatural grace for such an abomination it came to me and seemed to be giving me a one over. It made a sound that I could almost swear was laughter as it primed its tail to strike. Then a plasma round impacted it in the chest. It turned and growled at the now standing Jason.

He fired a second round of which was easily dodged by the creature. Diverting its attention back to me it reared its head back before _spitting _something at me. I soon found my entire upper body covered in a very familiar substance. It was the goo that covered the door back in the engineering deck. This thing must have done that. With that task done it turned back to Jason and with lightning speed lunged at him. Not expecting the creature's sudden burst of speed he wasn't prepared when the necromorph slammed into him, knocking him back a good distance. I tried to move but found that the goo was like cement.

I tried to activate my energy blades but found I couldn't pull the triggers on either hand. I found myself stuck and helpless as my friend fought this new necromorph alone. Jason pushed himself up and fired to more rounds at it. A few managed a hit but most were dodged by the beast. I began struggling all I could against the goo, if I could get any kind of freedom I could activate the projectors. After a few seconds of thrashing, with Jason's gunfire and occasional grunts of pain to motivate me, my efforts were rewarded with a loud crack. I looked to the sound and saw a long jagged crack along where my right arm was. Emboldened by my success I began my struggle anew. This time I was given a much sweeter reward of my right arm's freedom. Hardly thinking at this point I pushed myself upwards and broke my left arm out, soon my whole torso was free. Free of my goo based prison I pushed the debris pining me to the floor off and dashed to the necromorph.

"Hey!" I yelled as I activated my energy blades. The necromorph ignored me as it moved to attack Jason again. That choice cost it three legs as I sliced through them. It screeched in what must have been surprise as it teetered to one side, trying to regain balance. Jason took advantage of the beast's temporary distraction and took out the last leg and the necro crashed to the ground. In a last ditch attempt to cause some damage it lashed out with its tail, but the appendage passed us harmlessly. Two more shots from Jason silenced the beast. The alarm ended seconds after, the shield raising.

As I felt the adrenaline drop out of my system I waited for the explosion of pain from my certainly broken ribs. I was surprise however when I was met a loud ache. Even that was becoming fainter. Jason turned his head to me.

"Alex you ok?" he asked, concern tinted in his electronically distorted voice. "Looked like that door hit you pretty hard."

"I think so." I replied as I rubbed my now dented armor. "Now I really need to get some new armor." Jason choked out a laugh before he looked over to where I had been imprisoned. His stance stiffened before he looked back to me.

"Dude. How did you get out of that?" He asked in disbelief.

I raised an eyebrow in question, but the facial gesture went unseen from under my helmet. "How do you think I escaped? It wasn't all that strong surprisingly, so I broke out."

Jason gave me what I imagined was a skeptical look from under his helmet. "So you managed to get out of the crap that held up against your energy blades until they were upgraded and managed to push the several hundred pound door off you?"

'Well when you say it like that' I thought sarcastically, 'It sounds totally crazy' Jason thought back.

"Why is it such a big deal? I got out didn't I?" I asked again.

In response he simply pointed to my previous point of imprisonment, sighing I looked back at it and my eyes widened as I saw the aftermath of my escape. Places where the goo had settled on the metal had been up rooted, the ground metal ground showed arm sized dents, the broken off door I had pushed, slid until it implanted itself in the wall.

"Holy crap." Was all I could muster. I looked back at the necromorph, just where are these new ones were coming from? Then I noticed something, silver, and liquid. I knelt down and went to touch the liquid but was stopped by a barrier. I lightly tapped the obstruction and was rewarded by a light ringing sound.

"Glass?" I asked aloud. Gripping around the mutilated flesh of the necromorph, I began tearing at the skin. After a few good chunks and tears I saw something shockingly familiar. A disc-like body, and four long mechanized legs.

"That thing again?" Jason asked. I grasped the spider-like drone and gave it a firm yank and it came loose. I examined the underside of the drone to see a six inch long needle protruding from it.

"Just what is this thing?" Jason asked from behind me.

"No idea." I replied. This thing shows up twice and we meet two new necros. That couldn't be coincidence. And this liquid, what was it? I thought back to the Leader, it had looked eerily like a slasher, then this thing that looked like a leaper that had grown tentacles. At both places one of these drones were found in tow.

"Hey dude, do you think that these are causing the new necros to spawn?" I asked, Jason looked at the ground for a moment and then nodded.

"Yeah that could be a possibility, but how?" I tapped the glass causing the liquid to jiggle slightly inside.

"Whatever this crap is, it seems to like taking something and mutating it. Think about it, slashers can dish out damage but are dumb as a nail. Leaper's can cover ground but can't maneuver worth a crap. Now we got the Leader who can give out orders, and this… Scorpion who can cover ground and cover it fast."

Jason seemed to think on my reasoning before he spoke again.

"I get the Leader, but the Scorpion…" he paused as if testing the name I'd given the new necro, "It gained some significant mass. I don't think something like that could make such large impacts."

I nodded "Well yeah but look at the necromorphs. Slashers were once fully grown humans, now they have blades coming out of their arms, lurkers were infants and now they had barb launching tendrils, heck brutes are the results of a group of bodies mutating into one hulking mass." I explained, "Whatever causes the necromorphs to mutate is an incredibly powerful agent, mix that with whatever this crap is…" I gestured to the liquid, "it might mix with the necro 'gene' or whatever it is and… BOOM! You've got a mutagen steroid. Maybe enough to make these necros 'evolve'." Jason gave the liquid a glance before looking back at me.

"Then why didn't you?" he asked. The simplicity of the question, and its direction threw me off guard.

"What? What do you mean?" Jason pointed at the mostly fully vial on top of the drone.

"It doesn't look like it takes much of the stuff to make a reaction, even less to mix with the necromorph and cause this reaction. The skin grew around the drone which is probably why it didn't get away. But if it takes such a small amount to have such a profound effect when mixed, why didn't you 'evolve' when the whole batch made its way into you?"

He was right, if the large amount of fluid left in this drone's vial was any indication, it didn't take a lot to make a profound effect. So why wouldn't I be effected by the liquids effects. 'Wait' I thought suddenly, my eyes darted over to the door that now lay imbedded in the wall. Then my thoughts came to the now nonexistent pain that should have been rocking through my system. The way how I barley felt the pressure of the suit now on me, how I broke out of the goo so easily.

"Maybe I have." Jason tilted his head in what must have been a show of curiosity. "I mean look at that." I gestured to the destruction, "You really think I could do something like that without something helping me? Then there's the fact I took a metal door to the chest and somehow _didn't _break every bone in it. Even more the pain that was there has healed. Maybe whatever this drone is carrying and injects works beneath the skin, and it's the necromorph part that over mutates." I looked back at the drone in my hands.

"But that's not really important right now. This is one of the anomalies, we'll take this with us. Who knows maybe something like this could come in handy." Jason nodded lightly and said

"I'll go activate the elevator's, you get some new armor." With that he excused himself and began his way to the security checkpoint. I stored the drone and began to move to the store, but as I move I felt my limbs get heavier, the air became like lead in my lungs and around me. Soon I was frozen in my spot, and a cool voice spoke out.

"Very well done."

Every muscle in my body would have tensed if they hadn't been seemingly frozen in time. It was him.

"You are correct, the nanites that fill the vial of the drone you have in your possession does in fact force a state of evolution on the subject." The man came from behind me. He was wearing a black suit, his face hidden by shadow.

"But I'm not here to talk about the anomalies, or their nature." He waved his hand and I felt some control return.

"And what are you here for?" I managed out. For a second I could swear that his eyes glowed bright white, but it dimmed before I could make heads or tails of it the light died down. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a glowing data board. He placed the data board in my hand, a smile peeked out from under the shadow that hid his face.

"A little gift. You're no use to us or the multiverse dead."

With that he dissipated out of sight, no sign of him ever being there. I looked at the data board and my RIG popped up with a description of the board's contents. **Schematic: Military armor. **I blinked once before smiling. 'That'll work.'

Ω Ω Ω

(Jason P.O.V)

Getting the junction boxes up to power was simple enough. There were only a few necros that got in our way, mostly slashers and lurkers. Now we had to venture on the outside of the ship and to the primary cannon. Both suits had about ninety seconds of air, then we had to keep ourselves from being turned into Swiss cheese by the hail of tiny meteors that would come with their larger counterparts. "Be ready to run." Alex said from next to me. I looked at him and nodded. This would have to be fast, but then again I've never heard of fast while wearing mag-boots. I put my plasma cutter back in its virtual holding. I didn't need to worry about necros on the outside. Not like they could stick to the ground in the void of space, then there were the meteors that would tear them apart.

"Go." Alex said as he hit the interface. The metal door broke its seal and opened, the sucking sound of the air being vented filled the room for an instant, before we ran as best we could in zero-g. Out movements were slow and slightly sluggish due to the heavy pull of the mag-boots… well mine were. Alex seemed to be trying not to push of too hard lest he push off into space with his newly discovered strength. My RIG chirped a proximity warning and I quickly moved behind cover, Alex doing the same ahead of me, almost immediately after taking cover miniature meteors began pelting our cover. Fifteen seconds passed for what felt like a life time as my oxygen slowly depleted.

We managed to cross the distance to the other side in good time. As we entered we became aware of the fact that there was only one seat to the cannon. Suddenly the comm. went off Hammond's voice flowing through it.

_"__The auto-targeting on the primary cannon is shot. One of you will need to man it while I fix it"_

"How long?"

_"__A few minutes. The damage doesn't look that extensive, but you'll have to protect the ship, while I-"_ he paused, then spoke suddenly panic evident in his voice,_ "Get on the cannon! There's a fresh wave incoming!"_

The comm. cut and Alex turned to me, "Get in there, you're the better shot." I let out an annoyed groan before quickly getting in the gunner seat. The blast shield lifting to show a dozens of meteors coming straight for the ship. I took aim and fired both cannons, it got out only a few shells before my console went red and the cannons stopped firing. In that moment a stray asteroid struck the ship. **Hull integrity at 73%.** I panicked and began to press what I could to try and bring the guns out of lock. After a second the console turned green and I was able to fire again.

_"__Don't fire both at once! It'll overheat too quickly."_ Hammond yelled from over the comm.

I nodded to myself ant took a breath to calm my nerves. The sound of a second but much heavier impact shattered that attempt. **Hull integrity at 62%.**

I yelped and brought myself back to the task at hand, firing the cannons, one after the other. _"Just hold on for a bit longer." _ I continued to fire the cannons, one after the other in an attempt to keep them cool. A third impact resound through the room as one slipped by me. **Hull integrity at 59%.** I fired another round, only for the guns to overheat after that. Two more impacts. **50%.** The guns cooled and I resumed firing,

_"__Almost done just give me a few more seconds."_ I continued firing until the guns stopped responding to me and seemed to move on a will of their own. _"Done."_ I sighed in relief as I pulled myself out of the chair; my good mood was squashed when Kendra's voice spoke through the RIG link, bearing yet more bad news.

_"__Wait! I just looked at the oxygen levels, and their dropping. Remember that toxic substance that is poisoning the decks?"_ Alex nodded _"Well whatever is making it has sped up the process. Apparently it wants us dead and soon because if I'm reading this right, we have exactly three hours of air if it keeps at this pace."_ Alex's whole body tensed before he struck the wall, his new-found strength leaving a large dent in the metal. "Will this never end?" he asked.  
Kendra for the first time gave a sympathetic look and said,

_"Thankfully I found lab reports from a Dr. Challus Mercer. He's done extensive research on the substance, and the creatures, or 'necromorphs' as he calls them. From these note's I've been able to make a blueprint of a poison to kill what's making the stuff. But first I need the two of you to go to medical and make it."_ I groaned before speaking.

"OK. We're heading over to medical now."

From one thing to another. Why the necromorphs couldn't just lay down and die, save us the trouble of killing them, or having to worry about them killing us, was beyond me. I sighed before following Alex back to the tram station. 'We'll really need some kind of pay raise for this' it thought, Alex didn't even look at me as he replied, 'We aren't being paid.' I glared at the back of his head, 'Let's just get this over with.' I got a laugh in return. 'I'll need a really big pay raise' I thought again as we ventured to the tram. Next stop, Medical.


	7. A Lethal Devotion

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 6: A Lethal Devotion

(Alex P.O.V)

We stepped off the tram and onto the medical deck, the lights that were once bright now dark. Kendra's face appeared on the RIG link, her expression was something akin to frustration.

_"The substance is spreading faster, I've been able to slow it down by cutting off passage ways and vents but it hasn't slowed, you need to go to the chem-labs to get the necessary chemicals. Once there I'll hack the door."_

Her image popped out of existence, immediately after. I sighed and signaled Jason to follow me. We entered the main junction room, only to be greeted by the sight of locked doors. I moved up to the one leading to the diagnostics wing, the red interface holding steady, I groaned, this was going to set us back again. Jason moved to activate his come when suddenly a disembodied voice spoke.

"You can't stand in the way of god's plan, this is the natural order."

The two of us primed our weapons, searching the room for the origin. The voice sounded strange, like the speaker was on some kind of life support, taking in deep, seemingly, over exaggerated breaths.

"Are you?" it asked "Are you blind like the rest? Are you just more fools, struggling hopelessly against the inevitable?"

"Come on out and face us, we'll show you hopeless." Jason threatened, his head still turning rapidly.

The voice made no attempt to answer, after a few seconds of silence we lowered our weapons, and Jason activated his comm.

"Kendra, it looks like someone reprogrammed the doors down here, cone you fix that?" he asked.

Kendra responded quickly, _"Yeah, be careful, who ever reprogrammed the doors obviously doesn't want you here."_ The interface disappeared for a moment before returning, now colored blue. I tapped it and the door opened to us.

I motioned for Jason to follow me as we made our way through the corridors, encountering little necromorph resistance along the way. After a quick and careful journey we found ourselves in the chemical research. We walked through the corridors slowly keeping our guard up, we came to our destination, the door leading to the labs right next to a barricade made of welded panels. Jason opened the door and took a step in. The room was small, a desk at the far end, a door showing locked status, two windows on either side, one with the breach shield down. I moved to the desk, the three holographic interfaces lightly glowing orange, showing nothing. Curious, I tapped the keyboard holo and the screens resumed their images. One displayed what looked like a DNA structure, while the other, some kind of gibberish I couldn't understand, I looked at the middle screen and blinked in surprise at the image. While it looked different, the image was that of a-

"Necromorph!" Jason shouted from my side. I spun around to see Jason pointing his plasma cutter pointed at a large slasher like necro, that was currently floating in a tank of greenish glowing liquid. I quickly placed my hand on his cutter, signaling him to lower it. He did but looked at me from what I assumed was a questioning look from behind his helmet.

"We'll deal with that when we have to. If what I remember from the site I read about these things, that's the Hunter. I'd rather not have to deal with a necro that can only be killed by fire or freezing, neither of the two do we have access to right now."

Jason sighed and let his arms drop back to his sides, still however clearly tense if necro decided to wake up.

"Then get the chemicals and let's move, I don't feel comfortable in a room with this thing." He said as he looked at the necro carefully. I nodded and punched in a few commands on Mercer's desk. The table hummed for a moment before a panel at the head popped open, a glowing orange vial of liquid rising. I took hold of the chemicals and my RIG digitized it into my inventory. The shipboard computer began to spout some technical nonsense I didn't bother paying attention to. I was about to tell Jason we were leaving when an annoyed and slightly exasperated voice asked,

"What are you doing?"

We turned so fast to the origin I would have been afraid we'd pulled something, had we not been so focused on finding who had spoken to us. Then I saw him, he was on the other side of the window facing the Hunter's pod. His face covered in a thick black beard, his hair receding back into his head. Blood covered is medical uniform. He looked at us as though we were children, our hands caught in the cookie jar.

"Challus Mercer?" I asked with slight unease. Ignoring my question he continued,

"Your fight for survival is admirable but pointless." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, then a slightly bewildered look came across his face. "And yet you keep on going. Why? Why do the two of you and that meddlesome engineer fight so hard?" I blinked lightly and glanced at Jason.

'Engineer? Does he mean Temple?' I telepathically asked him. Jason kept his eyes locked on Mercer.

'Maybe, but we haven't found any other logs from him. He could be dead.' I turned my attention back to Mercer as he continued to speak.

"It almost makes me believe that we still have hope as a species. Am I the only one who knows that we have died out a long time ago, we just haven't accepted it yet." I blinked in surprise before tensing slightly, the guy was sending out a lot of signals I didn't like.

"So stop your senseless struggle. Your future, our future, the future of our race ends here. Allow me to introduce you to humanity's child. The children that will replace us!" He spread out his arms as he went on, his tone going from calm to slightly crazed. I activated my energy blades and took a fighting stance, Jason arming his cutter from behind me. I glared at the man before speaking.

"Sounds to me like you've gone so far off the deep end you've forgotten who the enemy is." Mercer lowered his arm and gave me a clearly disappointed gaze. "It's them or us! And we need to do all we can to survive." Mercer shook his head.

"Why survive when one can thrive? If you ascend into a higher form of life, _their_ higher form of life you will not need to survive! You will be gods!" Jason shook his head at the crazed man.

"You honestly believe that these walking corpses are a higher form of life than us. I'd put them down there with horse crap." Mercer glanced at Jason with a disinterested gaze.

"What you see as a corpse I see as evolutionary superiority. They can survive the void of space, they can survive without their head, have no need for a nervous system. They don't age! They are the final stage of evolution!" Mercer exclaimed as he spread his arms again. I scoffed.

"Sounds like their just glorified cockroaches to me. And so we treat this infestation as we would any other: we crush it, and them." Mercer simply smiled which set off every alarm in my head; he then spoke with a crazed conviction.

"It matters little what you believe. They will replace us, and with the newest addition to my creation," he gestured to the Hunter, "You will die." He reached behind him and grasped something from his RIG inventory. "A pity that there was only enough for my one creation but it is more than enough to deal with you." He then displayed what he had in his hands; I paled from under my helmet when I saw what it was. A drone. A drone with an empty vial.

"Bloit me." Jason groaned next to me.

Had the situation not been so serious I would have hit him. Mercer walked away from the glass just as a blast shield came down, cutting us off from him. I turned to the pod holding the Hunter.

"We need to leave. Now." I said, not taking my eyes off the Hunter. It was bad enough when it could just regenerate, but now for all we knew it could breathe fire once it woke up from its little nap. Suddenly the creature began thrashing in the pod and launched itself out through the glass. It roared before settling its glowing red eyes on us, placing its scythe blades against each other it ran them over each other in as if sharpening them.

"I hate my life."

The hunter must have taken that as the starter shot because it leapt at me with a burst of speed. The move was so sudden that I it was on top of me before I could do as much as blink. It raised its arms in preparation of an attack, but was cut short when a well placed shot from Jason's cutter separated the bladed appendages at the elbow. I then decided that now was the best time for a test run on my strength, I experimentally punched the necro in the chest. The result was for the necro to fly across the room, and into the wall, denting the heavy metal. My wonder however quickly turned to horror as the two fallen limbs twitched and began shaking. Then suddenly the two began _growing_! This continued until on the ground stood lay two hunters, however they were grossly deformed, each only holding a single scythe blade arm, limping horribly, the two mini-hunters, growled and roared at us as they pushed themselves onto their deformed feet. The hunter pried itself out of the wall as its limbs began to regenerate.

"Well that sucks." I let out in a tense tone. The first mini hunter lunged at Jason.

It soon made friends with the back of his hand. The mini landed hard on its side and Jason fired two rounds, taking off the arm and head. The min stopped thrashing instantly and made no movement afterwards. The second leapt at me swinging its bladed arm at me. I caught the offending limb and jerked the beast upwards and over my head, then back down, making it a wonderful acquaintance with the metal floor. Rather comically the limb snapped off and the necro bounced slightly off the ground, a satisfying series of crunches followed, showing the blow had destroyed the replica's newly made rib cage, and if its lack of motion signaled the necros termination. I looked at the hunter and its newly acquired arms. Things couldn't get any worse; the nanites had turned the hunter into a veritable Hydra, cut a limb off, two grow back. One on the original, another becomes a whole new threat, granted they were glass cannons, but this could turn into a real problem. Suddenly Kendra's voice spoke over the comm.

_"You can't kill it! It'll just keep regenerating, run!" _At that precise moment I wanted to hit her harder than I wanted to hit Jason. Rather grudgingly though I fought the retort that ached to come out, and shot a bolt at the hunter pinning the man-made necromorph to the wall. Jason tapped the interface back to the way we had come. The door began to slide to the side before sparks ignited and flew through the air. The door stopped in its tracks a small six inch gap the only sign it had opened at all.

"Come on!" I shouted in frustration, "Kendra!" I called into the comm.

_"I can't! The hydraulics have malfunctioned and locked in place!" _She shouted back over the line. I growled and activated my energy blade. I thrust the energy based weapon forward only to be impeded by a low blue light that covered the door.

_"That won't work you idiot! The disruptor shielding was made so exactly what you were about to do could be prevented!"_ Kendra yelled again. I growled and looked at Jason, "Keep that thing under wraps! I'll try to get this open!" He nodded and let out a stasis bolt, freezing the hunter in its tracks for a moment.

"What about the other door?" Jason yelled as he fired off the necro's legs. I relayed the message but was shot down; she said that the doctor had somehow locked her out of the local system. I looked at the hunter, or rather what my punch had done to it. Thing had to way four hundred pounds easy, and that one punch launched it across the room. 'Nothing to lose' I thought as I griped the door, preparing to pull. 'Nothing but our lives' Jason replied back irritably.

Choosing to ignore him for the moment I pulled. The door and the hydraulics groaned as I attempted to get them out of their current locked position. After a few seconds of struggle the doors suddenly gave out and slammed into a fully open position. Surprised by the sudden movement I stumbled a bit but kept myself from falling over.

Jason looked at me then the door and hurriedly made his way through it, I followed close behind. As we came out into the large room I heard the sound of the hunter roaring, a metallic crash following after. We moved swiftly through the corridors, all the while hearing the hunter as it stalked us through the vents.

_"Now that you have the chemicals go to the ICU the sample Mercer was studying is in there."_ Kendra said over the comms. I nodded before asking, "Any word from Hammond." From the exasperated sigh that came from the other end I guessed 'no'.

_"I've been trying to raise him but all I end up getting is static. Hurry."_ With that she cut the line. I sighed and we made our way over to the ICU. We maneuvered through the corridors, keeping our weapons primed. When we entered the waiting room we were greeted by Mercer. 'How did he get here before us?' I idly wondered.

"Your persistence surprises me. Holding onto your final breath as you crawl your way along. You hold on to what was once your world. But now… it belongs to our children." He said. I scowled; this guy's 'end of humanity' mindset was really grating on the nerves. "Take solace in the fact that your death, will bring their birth." Jason scoffed,

"If they need me dead for them to give birth, then this is one abortion I'd be happy to administer."

Mercer turned his head to the side, "listen. It's coming. Say your prayers." With that the crazed doctor turned and began to walk off.

"You better say your prayers. If I ever get my hands on you I'll do the Necromorphs job for them and rip you apart." I shouted after him. Mercer didn't turn around, ether he heard me and was ignoring me, or he just didn't care. It didn't matter to me. We needed to move.

Ω Ω Ω

Kendra looked at her screen, watching the crazed doctor walk off. She really needed to find a way to get rid of the doctor. He wasn't more than an annoyance as of now, but she was certain that would change quickly. Idly she looked at the screen showing Hammond as he fought off a number of the Necromorphs. He wasn't needed for them to survive; he was more of a hindrance if anything else. She just needed to keep the two focused on getting the poison, once that was done she could subtly pull the security chief out of the equation. Now was one of the best times to do so. She glanced at the purge progress **72%**. Just a little longer and she could be rid of them. She began typing in a code-string before a small voice spoke.

"Ken?" She spun around, surprised by the suddenness of the voice. But what she saw shocked her to her core.

A small boy, maybe six or seven years old, his light brown hair in a tangled mess, light blue eyes filled with tears, his clothing covered in dirt and muck, but amongst all this, the one thing that drew her eyes was the bullet wound that sat between his eyes. Blood leaked out of the fatal wound as the boy fixed the shell shocked specialist a sad and betrayed gaze.

"Why didn't you save me Ken?" he asked, his small voice choking. "You promised me that you would always protect me. Why didn't you save me?" Kendra couldn't formulate any words; her mind was locked in place at the sight of the child. Her younger brother. The brother that had died twenty some years ago. The very same boy she had been forced to watch as one of their kidnappers blew his brains out. The same boy who she had cried over for hours until she was found. Blood began to leak out his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as his gaze continued to burrow into her.

"Why didn't you save me Kendra?" he asked again. Kendra slowly began to feel like she was suffocating, her breath being stolen away. "Kendra?" the boy asked again. Darkness began to creep into the corners of her vision. "Kendra?!" he said again, his voice sounding slightly louder, more frantic. She felt her heart begin to slow.

_"KENDRA!"_

She sat up violently, hitting her head against the back of her chair. She hissed lowly at the pain and opened her eyes. Her RIG link was open, Alex looking at her, his emotions unreadable from behind the military helmet. The specialist shook her head, chalking up the sight as some kind of nightmare.

"Yeah?" she asked, her voice holding traces of anxiety that she failed to reign in.

Alex ether didn't notice it, or didn't care, as he spoke. She was glad for it, she refused to show weakness.

_"We have the chemicals. Now what?"_

"Head back to the chemical lab, you'll be able to mix the compounds to make the poison." Alex nodded mutely and cut the line. With his disappearance, a tear slid down Kendra's face before she hastily wiped it away. Mason was dead. Dead and gone, she'd already shed her share of tears over it and she wouldn't shed another.

Ω Ω Ω

(Unknown P.O.V)

I crawled through the maintenance ducts, trying to make as little noise as possible as I did so. 'How did it come to this?' I wondered to myself. A simple run to Aegis 7, get the minerals, and get out. Then they brought up that artifact. Then things really started going down. The murders planet side, and now the murders on the ship. It all had happened so fast. Vincent was right all along, that artifact had to be the source. They pull the thing up and suddenly the colony goes dark. They bring it up here and these things start attacking. I found my thoughts drifting to her again, I'd spent more than most of the few days looking for her, and resting were it was safe. I was almost to the medical deck tram, from there I could go though the place, maybe find out where she went. As I passed a junction the telltale sounds of plasma weapons going off reached my ears. I looked back. 'Someone's alive?' I thought before activating my map. According to it, that was cryo-storage, and it read that there were two unidentified RIGs in the area.

I smiled slightly, help had been sent. 'There's strength in numbers' I thought as I turned into the junction. When I came to the panel I held out my hand, the interface scanned it for a moment before opening. I pulled myself out. I was met with the sight of two people, on in the elite series armor, the other in a military grade soldier armor. They were surrounded by the deformed monstrosities. I looked to find the two doors leading out locked, thus barring my way to them. One of the creature's which was missing both arms and head began to shake,

It was a few seconds before the missing appendages were replaced, much to my horror. Then the two arms morphed into their own monsters. 'This is bad.' I thought as far as I knew the only way to kill them was to take out the limbs. If one could grow its limbs back and the lost ones became a danger themselves. The military armor guy was pounced on by the regenerating monster. It swung wildly, attempting to take his head off. The man however, using both legs kicked the beast into the cryo chamber. I looked at the terminal in front of me and activated the device. Creature was frozen in seconds. The two looked back to me and finally noticed my presence. Not that I could blame them given their current position. They finished off the rest of the creatures, and the elite suits RIG link opened up. They spoke to the woman on it for a moment before the link closed. They came up and through the door.

"Thanks for the save back there man. We'd be dead if not for you. Names Jason." I nodded

"You CEC?" I asked.

The man beside Jason nodded. "Yeah. We were sent to repair your comms. We ended up crashing. Alex by the way." He said, holding out a hand.

I took it and gave a firm shake. "It's good to find a friendly among all this crap." I said, relief coating my voice.

"So who are you?" Jason asked as he and Alex removed their helmets. I returned the gesture and spoke.

"CEC Engineer. Isaac Clarke."


	8. Harder and Harder to Breathe

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 7: Harder and Harder to Breath

Silence reined over the three of us. Alex and Jason were looking at me with wide disbelieving eyes. After a few seconds of silence I shifted uncomfortably under their gaze.

"Something wrong?" I asked nervously.

Alex was the first to come out of his stare and elbowed Jason, bringing him out of the delirium as well.

"Sorry about that man. It's just… surprising how an Engineer could survive all this, we have military training and we're just barely surviving with these things."

I nodded slightly, I was surprised myself at how I had gone from my normal mindset to the one I now held of kill first, never ask questions. Then something clicked in my head.

"Military training?" I asked, voicing my thoughts. "Why would they need two military guys for what would be a simple repair mission?"

Jason answered the question rather quickly with, "We don't know. We were just offered a large sum of credits upfront. Besides we have some expertise in ships. Not like a hardcore engineer like you but, I guess they figured it'd be enough to pass for fixing the comms."

I took in the information, it was possible…

"How've you been getting around Isaac? We haven't seen you around?" Alex asked suddenly

I refrained from mentioning that the length of the ship was well over a mile long and pointed to the maintenance shaft panel.

"These things criss cross through most of the ship. Over the last three day's I've hid and crawled through the tunnels, to get to here." I explained. I rubbed my arms as the reminder of my task sent an ache through them.

Alex raised an eyebrow and whistled. "Holy crap man. You crawled all the way from engineering to medical. While that is an impressive feat, the question remains why?"

I rolled my shoulder and replied "I'm looking for someone. A woman, by the name of Nichole Brennan. Or maybe a log she might have left to I could find her." I looked at the two pleadingly "Please tell me you found something like that." I needed something, anything, that could prove to me she was alive. Jason shook his head.

"I'm sorry man but we've been through this place twice, not once did we find anything pertaining to her. I'm sorry." He said, sympathy coloring his voice.

I sighed and nodded glumly, I wasn't what you could call the best judge of character, but I knew enough from growing up in Manhattan that he wasn't lying. I clenched my fist in frustration. Three days. _Three days!_ All for nothing! I let out a low growl. 'Where could she be?'I thought to myself.

"Isaac?" Jason asked. I looked at the dark haired man. He gestured to the door leading to the tram. "Alex and I Are heading to Hydroponics, something there is poisoning the air for the ship. We could use the extra gun. What do ya think?"

I looked at him and weighted my options, if I stayed here I could look through the deck, see if there was anything they missed, but if I helped them, I could come across Nicole. 'Highly unlikely'_._ I blinked, why had I thought that? It didn't sound like me. 'Best not to think too hard on it.' I nodded slightly in agreement. 'It's probably nothing'. I looked at the two and nodded.

"Yeah. I'll come along. Strength in numbers right?" I said.

Alex smiled slightly. "Nice to have you with us Isaac." He told me before he placed his helmet back on, Jason soon followed the action, both of their suits letting a soft click as their individual suits pressurized. I followed their lead, placing mine back on. "I'll head to the tram and wait for you guys." I told them before walking off.

ΩΩΩ

(Alex P.O.V)

My eyes involuntarily followed Isaac as he exited the room. My mind was reeling from all the possibilities. 'How could he be here?' I thought looking towards Jason. He glanced at me, conveying his confusion of the engineer's appearance over the link. 'Asks as if I have a chaken clue.' He replied, sarcasm dripping from his thoughts.

I twitched slightly, briefly wondering if I could mentally slap him. Shrugging slightly I focused on the image of me smacking him upside his head. It didn't seem to do much until his head jerked slightly. Nothing to dramatic, just enough to make it clear that my experiment had worked, albeit at a limited amount. He turned to me and gave me an unmistakable glare from behind his helmet. I let out a loud laugh. The electronically distorted sounded echoed in the small confines of the room. The sound died down after a second, only to be followed by a second. A giggle to be exact. Literally right next to my head. It might as well as been an explosion for all I was concerned. I jumped away from the origin, activating my energy blades as I turned, Jason bringing up his pulse rifle, aiming at the source. What we saw there I couldn't explain, but it was a small silhouette, probably three or four feet tall, the figure, or what I could make out from it, looked to be that of a girl wearing a dress, probably around 5 or 7 years old. But the one thing that drew my attention was the two bright yellow orbs, in place of where its eyes would be. Those eyes, they were staring at me with a strange intensity, familiarity, and most surprisingly of all, glee. The shadow bounced up and down, giggling all the while, her voice somehow distorted, as if she were talking on several different pitches at once.

_"Silly daddy."_ She said. The instant those words reached my ears my mind went blank, every muscle in my body locked up in shock.

"What did you call me?" I asked numbly. My question was only rewarded with a third set of giggles. She then returned to staring at me for a moment before she reached behind her shadowed form. From there she produced, what looked like a toy bear, it was too hard to tell since it was only a three dimensional shadow. The shadow girl skipped a bit to my and grasped one of my hands, my energy blade deactivating in the process.

_"You'll hold on to this won't you daddy?" _She asked. I blinked again, trying to dispel what should have been an illusion, but no, I could feel her holding my hand up, I felt her place the toy into my hand, I could feel it as my fingers seemingly of their own free will closed around it.

Not sure what else I could do, I nodded numbly. "Yeah." I said quietly. "I'll hold on to it."

The girl's bright orbs, seemed to glow even brighter before she hugged my leg tightly.

_"Thank you daddy!"_ she exclaimed happily. My free hand moved of its own accord and gently ruffled what would have been her hair. "No problem." Was my low reply. The girl lifted her head slightly and looked at me right in the eyes.

_"You're nicer than all the other daddies."_ She said in a quiet voice. _Other daddies?_ I thought to myself. Before I could question her on what she meant, her form deteriorated into black ash. Surprised by her sudden disappearance I jumped slightly. Her ashes disappeared, leaving no evidence of her coming and going. I looked at my hand that had held the toy. It was still there, for about five seconds until that too disintegrated. I looked at Jason who just stood there, his arms at his sides, pulse rifle hanging uselessly in his hand.

"Please tell me I'm not going crazy." I told him. "Please tell me you saw that too."

Jason looked at me and nodded slowly.

"No I saw something like this. When we were heading to the bridge, although, I'll say that it was bigger, and hostile." He replied. "Just what was that though? Why did she call you 'daddy'?"

I looked to the tram exit for a moment before returning my gaze to Jason.

"We don't have the time to be thinking about this. Isaac is waiting for us and we need to kill whatever is poisoning the air." I told him. Jason, despite having a mask to hide his emotions was still easy to read, I could tell he didn't want to let this go.

"Listen." I began, as I moved past him to the tram. "We can think about this later, right now we need to purify the air." I heard Jason sigh and follow behind me. We entered the tram and set the destination. Isaac sat down behind us. The ride was quiet; none of us seemed to be in the mood to talk. After about ten minutes we came to the hydroponics. We made our way through the corridors, all our weapons primed. We came to an elevator, and took it down to food storage. Soon after exiting it we saw a body down the hall. Partially slumped over, and leaning against one of the food treatment areas. We approached the body cautiously, as we came closer I realized that the body was Hammond. I signaled Jason and Isaac to lower their weapons. They did although Isaac was a bit slow to do so. I moved closer to Hammond, he didn't look like he was seriously injured. Sure he had a few shallow cuts, and a bandage was tied around his leg but nothing that could be considered fatal. Suddenly he jerked to life, pulling out his pulse rifle, he weakly took aim with one hand. He grunted as he tried to push himself up, but ultimately failed. He made I contact with me, before relaxing.

"Alex…" he said, his voice sounding strained, his breathing ragged. He glanced behind me to see Jason and Isaac. "Who's that?" he asked, weakly gesturing to Isaac. He stepped forward along with Jason and said

"Isaac Clarke. I'm one of the Ishimura's engineers." Hammond only nodded slightly before taking in a shallow breath.

"Good to see someone on this ship in one piece, along with you two." he said "Don't take your helmets off. The air's rotten." He took in a few more shallow breaths. Isaac pulled out a air canister from his RIG inventory. He handed it to Hammond, who took the canister, and a few good deep breaths. "Thanks." He said gratefully, his voice a little stronger. "I caught a glimpse of it. It's huge, you won't believe it." he took a breath in from the can. "Shut itself of in the main food storage. The crew on this deck…" he took in another breath "I think they're what are poisoning the air. They've been transformed. I saw one of them, bloated, swollen. Their poison factories. We need to take them out while we can still breath!" he tried to push himself up, but his RIG link came to life, Kendra's face taking residence on the hologram.

_"Hammond!" _She exclaimed. _"You need to get to cleaner air, you won't be able to help them in your condition."_ She glanced at what must have been a screen. _"Alex, Jason, he's right, there's something big in food storage, but I can't take a good scan. Be careful."_ And with that her image blinked out.

Jason pulled out a few charges for his pulse rifle and gave them to Hammond. "Keep yourself safe." The drowsy security chief nodded weakly, before taking another breath of canned air.

The three of us entered the main control room, a large interface titled "Air quality" blinking red. Kendra explained that she couldn't override the lock and needed us to destroy the factories to bring the air quality up.

ΩΩΩ

The councilor stood tall in front of the array of screens. The three of them had opted to split up and kill the mutated factories. He looked at a screen that displayed Jason as he fired off his plasma cutter at a group of necromorphs. Then to a screen that showed Alex as he ripped the head off a slasher that had gotten to close, and used his kinesis module to launch the body at one of its undead brothers.

"Good." He muttered to himself. "Very good." It seemed he made the right choice of universe to put them in. The constant threat of danger at any and every time had hardened the duo. Jason was using his variety of weapons, and stasis to keep the necromorphs at a distance. Alex was using his superior strength and newfound endurance, along with his unique weapon to dominate the undead creatures. The few hit's they managed to get would heal in seconds. His survival of the nanobots had proven to be quite the asset.

"Sir?" a voice asked.

The councilor looked back at the source, to show a woman of average height, light brown hair tied into a ponytail, a pair of thin framed glasses, covering her light brown eyes.

"Do you have the scans?" he asked. The woman nodded and handed the councilor a holo-pad. He took the device and began to read over the scan. It was scans of Alex's body, or more specifically over his muscular, and skeletal structure. His eyes widened by a small fraction when he saw the theoretical numbers.

He looked back to the woman, "This is accurate?" he asked

She nodded, "As accurate as we can get with virtual testing."

The councilor looked back at the information. According to their scans and virtual tests, the nanobots have increased both exponentially. The result of their genetic tinkering was that he could now _theoretically_ lift just over three tons, by taking themselves and adding them to his muscles, making them several times denser and several times more powerful. Then they were introduced to his bones, increasing their strength and durability, making them denser. Although all of this made him roughly a hundred pounds heavier.

"Very interesting." He said, pleased with the results.

The woman meanwhile was looking at the screens showing the two boy's progress. "They're doing well?" she asked. The councilor nodded, "Yes they are beginning to show promise."

The woman's eyes shifted between Jason and Alex as they slaughtered the necromorphs. "Doesn't seem much of a fair fight." she said, referring to their apparent domination of the necromorphs.

The councilor nodded. "Indeed." A few seconds of silence passed before he spoke again. "Was there anything else that you needed?" The woman adjusted her glasses and spoke, "The Council is wondering when you will see fit to bring these two in. They are beginning to become restless."

The man didn't even look back. "When they are ready, while they are doing exceedingly well now, they must continue until they have destroyed all the anomalies." The woman sighed and nodded. She left the room, and the man to continue watching the boys. As she made her way down the hall she was stopped by a tense voice.

"What do you think of them?" She turned to the origin and was met by a pair of electric blue eyes.

She arched an eyebrow, "What do you mean Captain Hathaway?"

The man scowled and pushed his armored form off the wall he'd been leaning on. "You know full well what I mean Dr. Jackson. The two _kids._" He said, placing extra emphases on the word "kid".

Jackson shrugged her shoulders uncaringly. "I don't have enough data to form a hypothesis." Hathaway's scowl deepened at the doctor's roundabout way of saying "None of your business."

"So what you're perfectly fine with two idiots, protecting the whole of the multiverse?" he asked. Jackson again just shrugged uncaringly. "They were picked by the High Councilor. So they must be some kind of special. Besides, I saw them in action." She said, adjusting her glasses slightly. "They seem to be handling the necromorphs well enough."

"Necromorphs are simple to kill, their mindless. They just charge and attempt to overwhelm you. There's nothing special about killing the equivalent of suicide bombers." Hathaway spat, venom practically dripping from his voice. Jackson turned and began walking away, "Are you saying that because it's true, or because the councilor didn't pick you?" she called back to him. Hathaway clenched his teeth. 'What so special about some brats?' he asked himself. He turned and stomped off in the direction of the shooting range. He needed to blow off some steam.

ΩΩΩ

(Jason P.O.V)

"Now to kill us a Leviathan." Alex said as he pressed the interface to begin the purification process. The computer chimed as the toxic air was vented out into space and replaced by more breathable air. 'Although since our suits have their own supply of air, why would we need to purify the air inside anyway?' I thought to myself as the three of us walked to the main storage compartment. 'Because we don't have an unlimited supply of air.' Alex shot back. I growled slightly in irritation of Alex's snarky reply. Of course this didn't go unnoticed by Isaac who looked at me like I'd suddenly sprouted a second head. I laughed nervously and just said I was clearing my throat. He kept looking at me for a few seconds before looking away. 'Idiot' This time I suppressed the growl at the comment that rang through my head. When we came to the entrance to the storage unit, we found it to be covered in tentacles, thus preventing access. Alex placed the poison in the injection slot. The air was filled with a low his as the poison gas entered the unit. Seconds later an earthshaking roar ripped through the air. The tentacles obstructing the door, writhed in what I guessed was pain and retracted into the room. My comm. went off and Kendra's voice filled my helmet.

_"The poison wasn't strong enough! It's still alive. Get in there and kill it before it infects the whole ship!" _She ordered before cutting the line. Isaac palmed his helmet in exasperation.

"Easy for her to say. She doesn't have to kill the thing." He groaned. Alex nodded to the engineer sympathetically, "I feel your pain, but no matter how annoying she is… she's right." Isaac just nodded before reading his line gun.

I shouldered my pulse rifle, preparing for the fight to come, Alex charged up his energy projectors. I walked up and placed my hand over the open interface.

"On my mark…" I told them. They both nodded. "Three…two…one…" I tapped the interface. "MARK!" We bolted in, weapons draw, only to be greeted by utter darkness. The door closed and locked behind us. The lights from our helmets were the only thing illuminating the room.

**Zero Gravity Active.** The computer chirped. After a painful amount of time the lights began to slowly illuminate the room, showing it was circular, and various things floating in the anti gravity. Then the lights came on full blast, then we saw the Leviathan. I don't know what I would have expected to see but is certainly wasn't this big mass of flesh. It covered the entire opposite wall, its 'mouth' was more accurately a cavern. Three stubs surrounded in a triangle. The 'mouth' moved slightly, as if the beast was waking up from a dream. That is until it shook violently and let out an earthshaking roar. From the stubs three column like arms burst through.

"Spread out." I said "If we stay in one place we're one big target."

"Roger Roger." Alex confirmed.

"Got it." Isaac sounded.

I glanced at Isaac's line gun. It was an immensely useful weapon, but that was only at close to medium ranges. Anything longer than that and it is totally useless, there would simply be too easy to just step out of the line of fire.

"Isaac. You got anything other than that? It'll be pretty useless in this fight."

The engineer nodded and replaced the large weapon, with what I recognized to be a rivet gun. The Leviathan roared and moved to slam one of its arms on us.

"Scatter!" Alex yelled.

We all leapt out in different directions, avoiding the incoming limb. It slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. I let out a quick burst off rounds at the offending appendage, only for my rounds to bounce off the limb's tough hide.

"Shoot the soft spots at the base!' I looked to see Alex had fired three bolts at the glowing yellow skin. Isaac aimed his rivet gun and in rapid succession fired the tool, the bolts ripped through the arms soft flesh. The Leviathan roared as it swung its second limb at the engineer. Isaac jumped out of the beasts path and landed on the far side of the room. I squeezed my rifles alternate trigger, a soft thump, and heavy kickback greeted me as the grenade I had launched sailed through the air. It impacted the limb at the exposed soft flesh and exploded, the result was the arm being cut off. Alex jumped forward, towards the beast, his energy blades active. The beast attempted to knock him out of the air, but the large limb sailed past him harmlessly. He landed at the base of the arm and swung. His energy blades ripped through the flesh like a knife through water. A roar of pain echoed through the storage unit as the second arm floated off uselessly. Isaac switched to another gun and jumped for the third and final arm. He pulled the trigger and a saw blade popped out from the gun and floated safely in front of him. The saw began spinning at high speeds, and he used the makeshift chainsaw and began to cut the third arm off, but nowhere near as neatly as Alex's of course. Blood and gore splattered all across Isaac's armor, changing its bronze color to an uneven crimson. After a few bloody seconds the last limb was disconnected from the Leviathan.

Alex turned to me and yelled, "Jason! Give this thing its daily dosage of high-grade explosives!" I smirked from under my helmet and reloaded my pulse rifle and took aim. A wild smile tugged at my lips as a thought came to me. I really couldn't help what I said next.

"Hasta la vista baby." The Leviathan roared in what I guessed was indignation. I pulled the trigger. A grenade sailed through the air. I pulled again. A second followed close by. A third time, fourth, fifth. Each of the small explosives flew through the air, and into the waiting 'mouth' of the large necromorph. Each one made its way into the necros 'mouth' and seconds after entering, five oh so satisfying explosions echoed from inside the creature, The Leviathan writhed and shook, before falling silent. Slumping slightly. Satisfied with the result I jumped back down to the entrance, Isaac following, Alex however was talking to Kendra via the RIG link. The two of us waited for a minute until he jumped over.

"What'd she want?" Isaac asked.

Alex palmed his helmet in irritation before answering. "Apparently we're going to the mining deck."

* * *

**Allow me to officially thank those who have reviewed my story, and if you haven't, please by all means review my story! Also i want ot say sorry if the 'boss' fight with the gang and the Leviathan was a little lackluster. I'm not all that good with big, blockbuster-like fights. Give me a hundred necros and have me pit them against our hero's and I'll give you a fight worthy of 300. (Yes this is me stroking my ego).**

**But there are a few things that I feel I need to bring out into the air. (Never mind the fact that 80% of those who will read my story will skip this)**

** Mercer: (The doctor not the prototype.) In the game he really didn't seem like much of a bad guy. I know he's a unitlogist (spelling?) but it didn't feel like it was showing in the game to me. To me mercer was just the mad scientist who did all these things cause the marker told him to. So Lethal Devotion was my attempt to make him at least a little less of just someone who'll impede you a little in the game while saying Isaac's fight for survival is pointless**

**Venting: In the game, like some hardcore gamers are aware, Mercer in the sixth chapter, vented all the air in the deck. I didn't do this because well it would have been pointless. Sure he vents the air and locks Kendra out of the system but conveniently forgets to turn off the button that gives you air back? Or that he could have just locked all the doors and trapped him in the room, he has enough control to lock Kendra out of the system and vent all the air. Why wouldn't he lock the doors? So for this purpose I left it out. **

** Kendra: In a way I am doing a bashing on this character. Why? Because i never liked her in the game. She was basically whining the whole time, telling you what to do, and (spoilers) betraying you. She leaves you to rot not once but twice! So that's my reason for my semi-bashing.**

**Mason Daniels: I felt that Kendra's mention of her brother was just kind of mentioned in passing. It was all like "I saw my dead/sick/dying brother" and then POOF! Never mentioned again. That always bothered me (I'm OCD like that) so I did the scene with Kendra and her dead brother, not only to satisfy my need to reach some kind of story with it, but to also make Kendra more of a person. Of course I'm still going to be bashing. :)**

**Sorry for the time it has taken me to update. I've been spending most of the week fighting off a giant six headed monster for eight hours every day. With a pencil. Only during the week am I given any kind of rest from the constant battle. **

**OK. Rant over.**

**Remember to please review.**

**Arokhsteel out.**


	9. SOS

**AN: I own nothing**

Chapter 8: SOS

(Isaac P.O.V)

I stepped off the tram behind Alex and Jason and onto the mining deck. Like most of the places in the Ishimura I had never visited it. Those of us on the ship mostly just kept to our stations, only leaving to go to the mess hall. I took a quick gaze at my map as Alex and Jason contacted the woman, Kendra I think her name is. As I looked over the layout I became acquainted to the fact that the mining deck was huge. It made sense I guess, it is one of the larger components to the ship. I let out a tired sigh and deactivated the projection. I heard Alex conversing with the woman but didn't pay any mind to their conversation. Suddenly a heat ripped through my skull, almost as if it were being cooked. I groaned quietly and place an armored hand to my helmet.

_"Make us whole again."_

I grimaced at the sound of the disembodied voice, it sounded like Nicole, but I'd learned to ignore it. Three days of following that very voice got me nothing. It was probably PTSD, something my mind conjured up to cope with the stress.

_"Make us whole."_

I growled slightly louder than I had intended. But neither of the two seemed to notice. The voice was really getting on my nerves. It had gone from a glimmer of hope to a simple annoyance rather quickly. I shook my head in an attempt to rid myself of the bothersome phantom my mind had concocted. 'I will find you.' I thought to myself.

"Isaac." Alex called.

Lifting my head out of my hand I looked at the man. "What is it we need to do here?" I asked.

"Send an SOS beacon out into deep space while attached to an asteroid, waiting for us in the mining bay." He replied "Kendra says that the beacon is on the maintenance sub-deck, which to our great surprise is locked." Jason commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm towards the end. Alex nodded before speaking again, "They keep a key on the processing sub-deck. The three of us should be able to get it with little trouble."

I sighed, 'Just had to be difficult didn't it?' I thought. I motioned with my hand for us to get a move on, I really didn't like staying in one place for too long, not with these 'necromorphs' as the two called them, stalking the hallways. We made our way over to the express elevator, none of us bothered to say much. Once we came to it, Kendra informed us that the elevator couldn't go to the mining sub-deck and that she was going to run a bypass.

When Alex attempted to do so anyway the screen flashed red giving him the technological equivalent of the finger. The military specialist muttered something under his breath before tapping the interface again. This time it flashed blue and the word **Processing**, took the majority of the screen.

The elevator began a slow decent, too slow. It was almost maddening just standing here, waiting for the elevator to make its way down one floor. I really needed something to occupy my time.

My 'prayer' was answered by a slasher landing right in front of me. I made a less than dignified or manly yelp as I jumped back and landed on my but in surprise. It prepared to swing at me until a low thump echoed through the small car as Jason fired his cutter, taking the offending limb of in one shot. The slasher turned and roared at him, only for it to be caught in a kinesis field. I watched from my spot on the floor as Alex slammed the necro viciously into the walls. Despite the situation it was really comical to see the necro flung around like a ragdoll. After a few good swings Alex released the necro, its bones were probably powder by now.

He looked at me "You good?" I nodded as I pushed myself up. Alex seemed content with my non vocal answer and looked back to the door. After a few short seconds the doors opened up and we stepped onto the possessing. Looking around I found that the place was slick with gore, not that I would have expected otherwise.

_"Don't trust them."_

I couldn't stop the growl that made it past my mouth and into the open air. Why couldn't the voice just leave me alone? 'Shut up.' I retorted mentally. 'Just leave me alone.' Pain rocketed through my skull as if a drill was working its way through it. My legs buckled under me and my rivet gun clattered to the ground as it slipped from my grip. Alex and Jason were at my sides in seconds; their words however, were nothing but a dull echo.

_"Don't trust them."_

I looked up painfully. There she was, her form fading in and out ever so slightly. Her jumpsuit changing from its pristine white to bloody. Her face switching between her own and that of what I could only describe as a ghoul. Her eyes switching between her warm blue to a blood red. This continued as she stepped forward, as she knelt down and took my helmeted head into her hands, leveling my visor to her eyes.

_"Trust me."_

Dark tendrils ebbed at my field of vision.

_"Sleep."_

Her voice took on a dark commanding tone, her face twisting into a sneer. The darkness began to close in on me. I looked to my sides only to find my two new acquaintances gone. Suddenly her form froze on that of the ghoul and she roared.

**_"MAKE US WHOLE!"_**

"WAKE UP!"

In an instant the darkness was banished and replaced by a white light. Seconds into it, my vision began to return, I was greeted by the sight of Jason hovering over my face yelling, but I couldn't make out his words. A high pitched ringing in my ears made that impossible. I blinked a few times and shook my head, clearing it of the noise.

"What happened?" I asked as I nursed my throbbing skull, I looked to the side to see Alex leaning against the wall.

"You fainted." Was his simple reply, the electronic distortion failing to conceal his amusement. "Then you started thrashing around, raving on about 'making us whole'." He pointed to Jason. "He gave you a few good shakes before just socking you." He pushed himself of the wall. "Seems to have worked."

I groaned as my headache doubled. Jason pulled me up to my feet.

"Sorry 'bout that. At least I left the helmet on." He said as he tried to encourage me. I simply gave him a blank stare that he just shrugged off.

"So any particular reason you fainted or is it just the usual?" Alex asked, his head facing the blood covered corridors, checking for possible threats.

"Nothing. Just the fatigue." It wasn't a total lie. At least I hopped it wasn't, I didn't really like the idea of some kind of alien artifact messing with my head.

The Artifact, or the holy relic as the unitologist in my station called it. Lord knows he wouldn't shut up about it. I just couldn't get them, the unitologists. They believe that human kind was created by aliens, based off the fact that a 'reluctant prophet' was assassinated some time after finding an artifact like the one on Aegis 7. Still don't understand how the man being killed by one his own co-workers who'd gone insane merits the creation of a religion, more of a cult with how they all seemed to spout the same nonsense my mother tried feeding me when she turned to it. I never bought into it though; I mean sure we could believe the load of crap that aliens created us, made up totally on the spot by a bunch of cult members, or we could believe several thousand years of Darwinism with actual proof. I quickly shook my head, attempting to clear it of the mental assassination I was forming in my head of the religion/cult's belief, no matter how ridiculous. Now really wasn't the time for me to go on one of my mental ravings on all the flaws of unitology, if I did we'd be standing here all day.

"We should get moving." I said, hoping to get my mind of unitology.

ΩΩΩ

(Alex P.O.V)

I raised an eyebrow from under my helmet as I looked Isaac over. After a few seconds I nodded. Not much point in pressing the issue. I'll just ask him later. I activated my locator and followed the holographic blue line. I motioned for the others to follow and began our trip to fix whatever was keeping us from processing. Our walk was a little long for my tastes and the hull kept making noises, almost as if the ship was trying to scare me. Our trip was strangely necromorph free, which was weird. Not including the one on the elevator we didn't run into a single necro. I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing or not. The walls were practically coated in blood, yet no necromorphs, heck there weren't any bodies. Once we came to one of the gravity rooms. My comm. lit up and Kendra's voice flowed into my helmet.

_"There's a failsafe on the processing control door. It won't open until gravity in the room is restored, which you can't do unless the boulders that are in it are removed. Use your kinesis module to throw them into the nearby gravity beam."_ She told me. I sighed 'Just couldn't be easy could it?' I mentally asked myself. 'Where's the fun in that?' Jason asked back. I let out another sigh and stepped into the room. True enough I could see several large chunks of rock floating in the space, a large tunnel like device in the center with a thick pulsating beam of energy passing through it. I activated my kinesis mod and tossed the nearest boulder into the beam, mildly interested as it burned up in the tunnel of energy. I repeated the process five more times before I was notified by the ships computer that all the debris had been dealt with. I activated the gravity and signaled Jason and Isaac to come in. We were about to head to the control room when a screech filled the air. The three of us sprang into fighting positions, our weapons primed. Not a second later the vents in the area exploded, slashers poured out of the ducts, roaring and screaming as they charged us. Shouldering his pulse rifle, Jason unleashed a flurry of pulse rounds at a group of them, the majority hitting a small number of them but not taking any limbs off. I shot forward, my energy blades glowing as I swung in a diagonal arc, taking two necros with them.

"Duck!" Isaac yelled from behind me. I dropped to the floor in an instant, just in time for a line gun blade to sail through the air and bisect two more unlucky slashers, the two halved necros toppled over themselves lifelessly. Then a fifth slasher jumped over its fallen brethren, blade arms primed to strike. It had jumped surprisingly high for a slasher, almost four feet in the air. Time seemed to slow down as I struck, my hand shooting out like a cobra. My target; the necromorphs leg. The instant my hand made contact I took a firm hold on the limb and pulled. Turning as I brought my hand and the necro with it down to meet the cold unforgiving ground. The effect was rather satisfying. The momentum caused the creature to bounce slightly off the metal ground, the sound of every bone in the necros chest break. This however did not deter the necro, and it thrashed, albeit weakly, in a vain attempt to escape my grip. With a quick jerk I tossed the necro as hard as I could with my given grasp on the creature, straight towards the gravity beam. The necro spun in as rather humorous arc before making contact with the energy beam. The effect was instant as the necromorph was disintegrated. Jason had forgone the use of the rifle for his cutter and let loose a flurry of cutter bolts, each impact signaled the loss of another limb. A rather large slasher had managed to get close to Isaac and made to swing at him. That is until it became intimately familiar with the side of his line gun. The necro tumbled backwards and collapsed on its back, he then proceeded to beat the creature in with the weapon. His swings were wide and slow due to the weight of the object. After a few good heavy swings the necromorph stopped thrashing. He pushed himself roughly off the corpse and aimed his weapon firing it off at a group of necros. Then a scream filled the air, from on top the gravity tunnel. All our eyes darted to the point of origin to see a slasher like necro, its skin black, eyes blood red and four blade arms protruding from its back.

"A Leader." I growled. The necromorph responded by screaming again, and to my great surprise the slasher horde backed off, still snarling at the three of us before retreating to the vents. I looked around at the necromorphs retreating forms before looking back at the Leader. It snarled at me before jumping backwards and retreating into a vent.

Within seconds we were alone in the room.

"Why?" Isaac asked behind me. "Why retreat? If they pressed we would have been trapped. They could have overwhelmed us, so why retreat?"

"Whatever the reason, it can't be good." Jason replied "It's like a game of cat and mouse."

I shook my head as I scanned the room, still tense from their retreat. "No. As far as we know the necromorphs have one purpose. Spread the infection. To them were just carriers, no reason to play with your food. Must be some kind of reason for this." I looked back at Jason. 'Think the hive mind has gotten smart to us?' Jason looked back at me then to one of the vents. 'Maybe, but why not finish us? I'm sure the hive mind would want us dead, but why now?' I rolled my shoulders a bit trying to rid myself of the stiffness. 'First the charge and overwhelm and now guerrilla warfare? What is it planning? Why toy with us? Send the whole horde after us and we're dead, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Dead and buried.' I thought back. 'Maybe some sick necromorph game.' I mentally scoffed 'Not the time to be funny.'

"What do we do?" Isaac asked, shifting as he gazed around the room. I deactivated my energy blades and started for the storage room. "We have a job to do. How about we do it?" I didn't wait for their acknowledgement and entered the storage room. I looked around for a second until I saw what I was looking for on a desk. I picked up the codes and downloaded them onto my RIG, throwing away the original after it was done. My comm. flashed to life.

_"Okay Alex, those codes should get you into the control room, don't forget to attach the beacon first." _I rolled my eyes, like I would forget to put on the beacon first. Kendra continued, completely unaware, continued._"I ran a report on the colonists. It seems they were suffering a form of dementia. Right after they pulled up the marker. The symptoms were paranoia, hallucinations, and more. One thing that remained consistent was that everyone said the same thing. 'They need our bodies'. Might have been referring to the necromorphs. The sickness spread and always ended with someone being killed, or the infected person committing suicide."_ She cut the line. 'Well thanks for the useful information.' I thought sarcastically. 'Kendra?' Jason asked mentally. 'Kendra.'

Jason and Isaac caught up with me and the three of us walked back to the elevator, the unsettling lack of necros present in our minds. We stepped onto the elevator and Jason keyed the processing interface. The decent was quick and uneventful, nothing of any real interest. When we came to the deck we were greeted with the sight of some kind of bile, clinging to the floors, walls and ceilings alike. The corruption it was called in the forums I'd read. I took a few steps forward only for Isaac to grab a hold of my arm. I looked back at him questioningly.

"Let me get the beacon, you two can go to the mining deck and kill off the necromorphs in that area. We don't need for everyone to go just to get a beacon."

I raised an eyebrow although the gesture went unnoticed due to my helmet.

"You sure you can survive without us?" I asked. Isaac tilted his head slightly and said "Didn't I save you?" I chuckled slightly. "Good point." He released my arm and stepped onto the deck.

"Be sure not to die." Jason said from behind me. Isaac only nodded and set off for the beacon. Jason keyed the mining button and we descending again. I activated my comm. as we defended,

"Kendra Jason and I are heading to mining. Can you give me any kind of information on the state of the asteroid?" There was a pause before she spoke up. _"Yeah sure, I just finished scanning it and I've got to say I've gotten some strange readings."_ I sighed, 'Perfect' I though bitterly. "Strange how?" I asked, keeping my souring mood out of my voice,"Weird like there's something in the rock or weird like a horde of necromorphs?"

_"Well I'm picking up at least a dozen heat signatures, but the weird thing is that the asteroid itself has a heat signature, a large one at that."_ I groaned, things just had to be complicated, 'Can we just once run into a horde of cuddly kittens?' I thought to myself. 'Nope.' Was Jason's smart reply. 'I hate you.' The elevator stopped as we finally came to the mining. We hurried our way through the deck, not running into any necros along the way. I began to get the feeling that the necros that seemed to be absent from this section of the ship, were waiting to give a little surprise party. When we came to the chamber holding the asteroid I noticed a workbench off to the side. I glanced back at Jason, as he shouldered his plasma rifle. I frowned slightly from under my helmet. It was no doubt a good weapon, but up against anything but the strongest of necromorphs it was almost useless, it simply didn't do cutting damage, It was made in the thought of being fired at something that couldn't take a hail of bullets to the chest. If anything the plasma cutter was the better weapon, and arguably the best you could want in this kind of situation, it fired and cut on almost every shot, but the reload was crap and you didn't get a lot of ammo for it. Then realization struck me. Back on the shuttle it said I was a weapons engineer. Meaning that I specialized in building and customizing weapons, and the G-man guy did say that we had been telepathically implanted with knowledge we didn't have before, probably to make our covers more believable. I smirked and spoke up.

"Mind giving me you cuter and the rifle for a second?"

Jason froze and looked at me with what had to be a disbelieving stare. I could have sworn I saw a red question mark pop up over his head, but it was gone in an instant. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, wouldn't be the first time I was seeing something crazy.

"And why pray tell would I do that?" he asked. I held up a hand and activated an energy blade as I spoke, "Remember how I upgraded my energy blade?" he nodded slightly, "Good well I was just thinking that if I could do that with one of my weapons, then I should be able to do the same with yours, upgrade it to a better weapon." Jason looked down at the rifle then back at me, "And if you break one, or both of them I'll be defenseless, or down a weapon. Besides you haven't really done something like this before. With the energy blades you had some blueprints." He said, not quite ready to let go of his only line of defense. "Well yeah but, even with the blue print's I shouldn't have understood enough to make the upgrade, yet I did. Perfectly. I mean my 'record' shows that I'm a weapons engineer, and the G-man guy said that we had knowledge 'implanted 'in our minds. So that means that while I've only done the upgrading once, I can do it flawlessly. Besides if I do break it I'll just fix it." I explained.

My friend was quiet for a moment then let out a sigh. He took out his cutter and held out the two weapons, "Try not to break them?" he pleaded. I smiled and gave him a nod before taking the weapons over to bench. I set to work quickly, and began disassembling the two weapons, I looked over each part carefully, my eyes searching for anything that would hinder the weapon I had in mind. Time blurred together as I worked with what would have been practiced speed and ease if I had practiced at all before this point. After a few minutes I finished. Holding up what was now one weapon. It still had the body of a pulse rifle but I had modified it to shot like a plasma cutter with energy tethered rounds. I had attached the plasma cutters barrel and a second one I'd found on the bench. I fastened the two together to make an X and installed it to the rifle body. Now that it was done I shouldered my new creation and fired. The round flew through air and hit the wall I was aiming at, leaving a perfect X indentation. Nodding in satisfaction I turned and gave Jason the new weapon. He took it in his hands and took a quick aim. He weighed the weapon a little and the nodded.

"Nice job man. This is pretty cool." He said his tone somewhat giddy.

"Thanks man, say hello to the Plasma Cutter Rifle, or PCR if you're feeling lazy." I told him proudly. Then I became aware of a metallic thumping noise that was getting louder. Jason having heard it too spun and primed the PCR, ready to give the weapon its first taste of blood. That is until Isaac rounded the corner, jogging lightly, his line gun in hand. Jason lowered his gun and relaxed, speaking as he did.

"Nice to see you in one piece Isaac." The engineer nodded as he stopped jogging and walked over to us. "You got it?"He asked.

"Oh yeah, just got slowed down by a brute, but it went down easy enough." Isaac replied as he reloaded.

"Then let's go teach these necros a lesson." I said pressing the interface. The door slid open. We all dashed in weapons ready to kill. It happened so fast, but we were surrounded in seconds by five eight legged necromorphs. Five scorpions. I cursed under my breath and looked around us, seeing a number of lurkers behind the larger necros tendrils poised to unleash their barbs. A loud roar shook me out of my observation of the floor and to the asteroid. What I saw on the large chunk of rock was an infector. But not just any old infector. No this thing looked be the king of all infectors as the thing was massive, its body covering the majority of the rock. I stood there for a instant frozen in shock before the scorpions dashed for us. Just as they closed in on the three of us I heard Jason's voice speak in my head. 'Son of a blit.' I gnashed my teeth in annoyance, and readied my weapons. 'I am so hitting you after this.'

* * *

**What is up my friends. Arokhsteel back in time to give you this. Yeah sorry if it's a bit... bland, I've been dealing with finals and had to focus on that so sorry for the delay. But now that I'm free for two weeks, I hope to get back on the ball and bring you more of Alex and Jason, as they try to survive in this universe of Dead Space.**** -This next part is for those hard core gamers who know of the Dead Space world, and actually care about my accuracy on it.  
**

**Isaac's distrust to unitologists: I got this bit of information off of the Dead Space wiki so I KNOW(sarcasm) it's true, so you can go look it up on google if you want. If it is believed that I missed something or that a piece of information is wrong let me know if you feel it is crucial for the survival of all mankind that it must be added/fixed, let me know.  
**

**Hating on the Pulse Rifle: Now I've played dead space and in the whole game the pulse rifle, while a nice weapon for the right condition, is kind of useless against some of your enemies. It took me five shots to take down a slasher's arm with the gun, where as one or two shots with the plasma cutter and the thing is dead. This is just my personal experience, I don't know if it was that way with any one else, this is just me.  
**

**The PCR: In the third game that is on its way, we are shown that you can customize your current weapons in inventory and make your own original gun. The PCR is what I would like in a gun for Dead Space. All the firing speed of the pulse rifle, all the cutting power of the plasma cutter. I'm not sure if this actually what we can do in the third game but it is what I would like.  
**

**Thanks for reading folks. Don't forget to Reveiw!  
**

**Arokhsteel out!  
**


	10. We Have a Problem

**AN: I own nothing **

Chapter 9: We Have a Problem

The first scorpion lashed out with a tentacle, attempting to catch me by the side. As quickly as I could I ducked und the swing and swung with my own energy blade only to hit air. Isaac fired his line gun at another only for the thing to hop over the attack. It landed right in the middle of our circle, forcing us apart. I rolled out of the reach of the first scorpion and up to one of the nearby lurkers. I bobbed and weaved around the barbs the infant necromorph launched at me. The second I reached the abomination I swung vertically, slicing the creature in half.

"DUCK!" Jason yelled. Not sure if he was calling to me or not so I dropped to the ground just as a scorpion's stinger impaled itself into the metal not inches in front of my face. The limb squirmed in place before a saw blade severed the spear end from the main body. I jumped to the wall I was facing. In seconds I landed on the metal surface and my mag-boots locked onto the surface I Looked back to see the now tailless scorpion attempting to right itself as it was thrown off balance by the sudden removal of its tail. I aimed my blot projectors at the creature and fired twice. The creature screeched as the two energy javelins pierced its torso. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jason take aim with his PCR and fire, the clusters of plasma bolts ripping through the necromorphs legs, however due to the lack of gravity, the necromorph simply floated in space roaring in indignation. Isaac activated his ripper, the saw blade popping out of the chamber and hovering in front of the engineer as he swung the blade ripping through a scorpion's legs. Jason launched a grenade at two scorpions' that had gotten too close to one another. The two scorpions scattered, avoiding the explosive entirely however the two lurkers behind them got the full brunt of the explosion, effectively turning the small necromorphs into paste. The fifth scorpion turned and launched a glob of goop at me, catching my foot. I growled at the necro as I attempted to free my leg from the gunk. Jason leveled the his aim on the necro and fired a burst of plasma bolts ripped through the necro's legs, unlike the one I had taken out the plasma bolts ripped the scorpion to shreds.

I glanced around the room to find that Isaac had finished the scorpion near him and the remaining two were coming in my direction in an alarmingly fast pace. I fried two blots at the necromorphs, only for them to swerve around the blasts. I failed to notice however that the one of the two bolts I fired had a trajectory that coincided with Jason's back and alarmingly close to his spine. My eyes widened in horror, as the blot flew through the air ant to my unsuspecting friend.

"JASON!" I yelled out in desperation. Jason shifted his stance, as he turned to look at me. This shift in stance caused the blot to pierce his side. It wouldn't kill him but it didn't look like it exactly tickled. He let out a pained cry as the energy javelin pierced his side and stuck. The force of the impact throwing him off his feet. I turned to the necromorph that was still speeding towards me, I glared at the creature before giving my imprisoned foot a hard pull, freeing it after a second of resistance.

My energy blades activated and I lunged at the creature, tackling it to the ground. With a growl I shoved the blade into the scorpions torso and brought it up, cleaving the upper half of its body in two, killing the necro. A roar alerted me to the presence of the second behind me. I turned and fired my remaining three shots at the final scorpion, impaling it and sticking it into the wall. Isaac fired off his ripper, killing the remaining lurkers. With the immediate threat ended I jumped over to Jason, who was clutching the now empty hole, groaning quietly in pain. I gave the wound a once over and found that the energy bolt had at least cauterized the wound. Of course that didn't do much to help him through the pain. I took out a large med pack and inserted it into the medical slot on his leg. He let out a small groan as the medical agents flooded his system

"What hit me?" he asked in a weak voice. I cringed slightly, although the act went unnoticed from under my helmet."You were in the way of one of my bolts. Sorry about that." I told him trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

"Was it going to be bad?" Apparently I'd failed. I looked away before replying, "It looked like it would hit you near your spine."

"I hate to break up this touching moment," Isaac said as he pointed his weapon at the asteroid, "but we still have one more left."

The two of us looked up at the giant infector that was giving us an eyeless stare. I hoisted Jason onto his feet and looked over at the massive necro. The creature which was standing surprisingly still, just looking at us. It was rather unsettling. After a few seconds of the tensest staring contest in human history I spoke up.

"What do you think its doing?" Isaac shrugged, not taking his off the necromorph. "Maybe it's sizing us up?" Jason fired a grenade at the creature, hissing slightly as the recoil agitated his still aching wound. Funny thing is that when the grenade collided with the infector and went off it didn't even flinch.

"Peachy." I drawled out, sarcasm coating my voice. The necro seemed to tilt its 'head' in I guess what would have been a sign of curiosity. My comm. link sprung to life, making me do a small jump in my suit.

_"What's taking you so long!"_ Kendra yelled over the device. _"You should be done by now! What's the hold up?"_

I grit my teeth together, "Kendra, you are aware that there are cameras on this ship right?"

_"What does that have to do with anything?!"_ She yelled back, making no attempt to hide her irritation.

"If you would shut up and look at the footage I'm sure you'll figure it out!" I yelled back, a little louder then I meant to.

Jason despite his obvious discomfort elbowed my ribs, just hard enough for it to get my attention and annoy me further.

"Now really isn't the time for you to go on you period! We got a king kong sized necro right in front of us!" he hissed out.

"Up yours!" I shouted back at him. Through it all Isaac was looking at the two of us like we'd grown a second head. I'm sure we would have gone on like that for a while had a loud, rhythmic; rumble echoed though the large room. All three of us looked back to the giant infector to see it shaking slightly, its 'head' bobbing up and down. I blinked once… twice… three times before a thought occurred to me. It was _laughing_ at us! I sneered at the beast from under my helmet before popping out my overused fuse for a fresh one. Snarling as I aimed my projectors at it and emptied the whole charge. It was rather satisfying to see the seven energy bolts sticking out of the massive necromorph. This however seemed to do little more than irritate the creature as it roared at me. The necro reared its head back and jerked it forwards. We barely had a second to register this big thick mass coming right for us. All three of us dove in separate directions. A meaty thud alerted me to the objects collision. I looked at the origin to see a large fleshy column attached to the ground. My eyes followed the column all the way to the infector's head.

"Great it stuck its tongue at us." I heard Isaac groan. I pushed myself up as the tongue zipped back to the necromorph's mouth, only for it to shoot back out again. It hit the scorpion that was still spinning in air, about fifteen feet away from me. I watched as red and black tendrils covered what was left of the scorpion's body. It was seconds before it was eaten away by the tendrils and the tongue returned. I looked at the creature in confusion as it violently shook in place. Its skin began to writhe and rip, as if something was crawling under it. Then a large spear tip tail ripped out of the infectors back.

'Son of a blit.' I thought as the infector brandished its new weapon. I didn't have time to register Jason's roaring mental laughter as I dove out of the way of the deadly weapon, planted my feet back onto the metal ground once I was a safe distance from the tail.

"Take it down!" I shouted at the Isaac and Jason. They reacted immediately, firing their weapons at the massive infector. I popped in a fresh charge, and aimed my projectors at the creature looking for any kind of weakness. I decided to go for the infectors head. I jumped off the ground, using some of my super-ish human strength to launch me faster than normal. I speed through the air and impacted the necromorph's head, energy blades piercing the surprisingly soft flesh of the infector's head. It didn't last long as my boots had nothing to magnetically lock on to. So I settled for grabbing a chunk of the creatures head. I started hack and slashing at the necro hoping to do as much damage I possibly could. Gore and bits of flesh hovered in the air as I hacked through the creature's skull. I stopped to catch my breath only to be swiped off the infector. I collided unceremoniously with the ground. Thankfully my mag-boots engaged and kept me from bouncing. I looked back to the infector as red and black tendrils crawled all over the wound, eventually closing it up. I pushed myself up, internally cursing our luck. This thing eats a scorpion; it gets a tail, now it seems to shrug off our hits like their milk duds. I glanced at Jason as he let out another hail of pulse rounds. The rounds unfortunately bounced off the necromorph's skin. I heard a very distinct growl as he reloaded the PCR.

"Jason!" I called. He gave me a sideways glance before returning to his target.

"Not now Alex!" he shouted back.

"Yes now!" I yelled. "Listen we need a better plan than 'shoot till death'! Your rounds are bouncing off it and it can take being sliced up! We need-"a heavy mass slammed into my chest, sending me clear across the room.

"ALEX! You son of-GAHH!" Jason tried to yell out, only to be swiped by the spear end of the tail. I let out a pained hiss as I crashed into the wall. The impact disoriented me, making it hard to find my footing, being in zero-g didn't help much either.

"Isaac?" I ground out through clenched teeth. "Isaac we need a plan."

"I know but what can we do? I'm nearly out of ripper blades." He called back, sounding slightly irritated from our obvious failure. I gave it a moment of thought as I magnetized to the floor and clutched my possibly fractured ribs, that even now I felt cracking back into place. My RIG link popped out in front of my face. With my head down I could only see the edge of the holographic screen, but it didn't take much to guess who it was.

"Now's really not the time Kendra."

_"Silly daddy."_ My head shot up and my wide eyes locked onto the screen. Sure enough there on the screen was her, or at least what I assumed was the girl as I could only see from her eerie yellow eyes up, almost as if she was sanding to close to a camera. _"Behind you daddy."_ I turned and glanced behind me to see her there, hands behind her back. Even though I could only make out her eyes a blind man could see she was smiling… or at least attempting to look like she was smiling.

_"This way!" _She said joyfully, just before she turned into black ash. The only difference was that this ash flew up the wall until it came to a window, the ash effortlessly passed through the window and condensed back into the girl. She bounced slightly and waved gleefully, _"This way!" _she repeated.

"Isaac?" I shouted, turning to the engineer. He turned to me as I pointed at the window, and the shade of a girl still bouncing in it."What's in that room?" I asked, Isaac dove closer to me, avoiding the spear like tail tip. Once he was a safe distance he fired his weapon a few times before looking at the window I was pointing at, seemingly ignoring the girl in it. His stare lasted a few seconds before he stiffened, his gaze turned to me, and even behind the helmet I could practically feel his alarm.

"That's the asteroid launch controls." He said, his voice taking an accusing tone. "Why would you want to know about the launch controls?"

I looked back at the girl whose wide yellow eyes continued to look at me innocently, as if she didn't understand the position she'd indirectly put me in. Which was probably the case. I looked back at the giant infector and Jason who was dancing around the creature's attacks, desperately trying to do some damage to the creature, but unfortunately failing.

"Answer me Alex!" Isaac shouted at me.

'Jason.' I thought, momentarily ignoring the engineer

'Now's really not the time' he retorted

'The girl appeared again.' Silence 'And she's shown me the asteroid launch control room.'

'Why would she do that?' he asked but I got the feeling he already knew the answer.

'I think she wants me to launch it. Now.'

'We haven't attached the beacon. If we launch the asteroid now we won't be able to signal for help.'

'At the rate we're going, we can't get the beacon on the asteroid. The infector has taken everything we've thrown at it so far and it's been shrugged off. But I doubt that it can survive being thrown back into the planet. I just need to aim and pull the trigger.' Jason jumped to the side, avoiding another of the necromorphs attacks, launching two grenades at the creature.

'And how will we get out of here? Life boats are gone. Our shuttle is trashed.' He asked.

'The guy told us we were supposed find and destroy the anomalies. I'm relatively sure we'll find a way onto the planet.'

'Relatively?' Annoyance was the dominate thing in Jason's thoughts. There was a mental sigh before he continued. 'I really hope you know what this will mean.'

'It's necessary. I don't see us winning this fight without doing this.' I replied. I was about to turn to the launch room when Isaac's metal encased fist slammed into my helmet. He had apparently taken my momentary silence as me ignoring him and he obviously hadn't liked the idea. It hurt, not but by much but just enough to allow me to learn one thing.

Isaac has a nasty right hook.

I'm sure it would have hurt more if there hadn't been a military grade helmet blocking the hit. I straitened as the blow forced me to stumble slightly.

"That was overly excessive." I drawled out.

"You are not launching that asteroid! Not until we can get the beacon on it!" He yelled at me. He'd obviously had caught on to my thought process, granted by the way I hadn't answered him, I guess it could be taken the way he thought it was going.

"So you have a plan to kill the giant necro that's shrugging off our hits?" I asked sarcastically.

"We'll figure out a way to kill without getting rid of our only chance of escaping this ship!" Isaac said hotly, his shaking in anger.

"All we've done has had no effect. I'm sorry Isaac but this is the only thing I can think of that will kill the thing, and besides there has be a way besides this." I said, trying to diffuse the situation. Isaac apparently wasn't having it.

"NO! You haven't been trapped here for the past three days! You haven't had to deal with this hell!"

Apparently Jason was having it either. "Have your emotional breakdown later!" He yelled as he dodged another attack. "I don't know what's going on over there but we need to keep it together! Otherwise we might as well just kill ourselves and save the necromorphs the trouble!"

Isaac looked back at him, his body relaxing slightly. "I know you want to get out of here, we all do. We will find a way out, just not this way." I said sympathetically, Isaac looked at the ground, then at me before he turned to the infector. "Do what you have to." He said simply, advancing on the giant necromorph. I nodded and jumped up to the window, my mag-boots locking onto the metal surface around the glass. I clenched my fist and swung downwards, the impact strong enough to create spider web cracks all along its surface. I swung down a second time, putting more force in it. The glass shattered and shards flew inwards, falling to the ground, signaling the gravity was active in the room. I pushed myself into the room, feeling gravities familiar pull instantly. I landed heavily on the metal ground with a thud. I turned to look at the girl who was bouncing up and down as she pointed to a console at my left.

_"This one daddy! This will get rid of the monster!"_ She said happily. I looked at the girl then to the console. I stepped up to it and looked over the controls. I was about to move to pick out the launch function when my whole body locked up. My teeth clenched as my body refused to make any form of movement. Then suddenly my arms flew out and danced across the holographic interface, the screen flashed with numbers, and images of things I couldn't make out. All of this happened within the span of a few seconds before my arms stilled. The interface now holding a single message.

**Launch? Please confirm.**

I blinked once then twice before tapping the launch key. There was a loud build up before there was a pulse, this impacted the asteroid to fly out the massive rock and its necromorph passenger out into space. I watched as the rock flew out into space when a loud explosion sounded and the asteroid exploded, its massive passenger becoming little more than a bloody mist. I took a step back in surprise, not at all expecting the asteroids sudden destruction. But laughed slightly, it was in some way humorous to see the necromorph become a fine mist. I looked to were the girl had been only to see the black ash that composed her to disappear. I then became acutely aware how Gordon feels when Batman pulls a Houdini.

ΩΩΩ

Kendra clenched her teeth, unbridled fury sweeping through her. She had told them to plant the beacon, and launch the asteroid. Unknown to them signaling the Valor, the ship waiting just outside scanner range that they were to come in and help her. She slammed her fist into the metal desk she was sitting at. But no. Somehow Alex got into the system and with impossible speed, reactivated the ADS on a console that shouldn't have been able to do so and somehow set up an impassible firewall that kept hr form deactivating the system before she could stop the automated cannons from tearing the rock apart. How had he done it? She was one of the most prominent computer experts there were. Due in part to a time when she lived off hacking computer systems remotely. There wasn't a system that could keep her out. At least not for long. What really infuriated her was that he didn't have any kind of training in the field. She'd worked most her life to achieve the skill she had with a computer, and now he was, making such a powerful defense in seconds. Even worse her whole system had locked up. She was literally kicked out of the system. It wasn't by any means permanent but it would be a pain to get rid of.

And why would he make a fire wall around the ADS? Did he know what she was doing? Impossible. There was just no way, he couldn't have figured out, she had absolutely covered her tracks. He'd never even accessed a console to look over any sort of information that might make him suspicious. Unless he had remotely done it from his RIG but that was impossible. Then again he did just make a firewall that could keep her out in seconds. She shook her head, dispelling the thoughts that inhabited it. She opened her RIG link and spoke.

"What in the HELL were you THINKING!" she yelled as loud as her voice would allow. "I specifically told you to attach the beacon and launch it so we could call for help! Not launch it and have the ASD destroy it!" Alex looked back at her, she could practically feel his glare burning into her, his helmets eerie green 'eyes' only adding to the effect. Despite herself she flinched slightly, she would never admit but Alex looked genially terrifying from behind that helmet. Those who built the suit to look the way it did really do their job with making it look intimidating. It also didn't help that she had seen him rip necromorphs apart like they were tissue paper. She didn't doubt for a second he could make quick work of her. Still she composed herself and glared back at the man.

"Mind telling me when you thought you could order us around?" He asked his calm voice full of hidden anger. Kendra scowled, she really didn't like this guy, yet she had to tolerate him so she could get what she wanted. If things had gone the way they were supposed to she would have had him be one of the first she'd ordered killed. But now with the destruction of the asteroid she had no way to contact the Valor.

She really hated him.

"If you expect to survive this you need me." she declared, glaring at the man. "I can't save us if you make stupid decisions! From now on you will either follow my orders to the letter or you will be the death of us all!"

All sound seemed to vacate the area she was in. Alex straitened, his stance, screaming anger. If looks could kill Kendra was sure that she would a bloody paste, smearing the walls.

After what felt like an eternity Alex spoke. "Screw you." The line cut. Kendra snarled.

She _really _hated him.

ΩΩΩ

(Alex P.O.V)

"I don't think that was the best of ideas." Jason said from behind me, although his voice showed he was also irritated with Kendra.

"Don't care. We just have to find a way out this place." I replied as I tried to quell my anger towards the computer specialist. In that one moment I honest to god wanted to pop her head like a grape. Given my strength I could probably do just that. Suddenly my RIG link opened back and instead of Kendra, Hammond's face took up the screen, relief written all over it.

"Alex! Jason!" he exclaimed. "I've been trying to contact you for some time now. Someone was remotely blocking my RIG signal, something happened and disabled it."

I blinked in surprise, who could've been blocking his RIG? They would have to be a computer specialist. Kendra came to mind, but I pushed that out of my head. I was just looking for a reason to persecute her now. It could have been Mercer, he had much more reason to do it then Kendra, she might be a royal pain, but I couldn't think of a reason why she would do that.

"Anyway I found some med supplies and patched myself up. I'm calling an abort on the mission. Screw the CEC, and screw the chain of command!" I blinked again before smiling.

'About chaken time.' I thought.

"I think I found a shuttle on the crew deck. Logs state that it needs new navigation boards, but I'm getting readings three of them on the deck. If you can find them we can get off this husk and out of here. I'm going to call Kendra and inform her of the shuttle."

Luck seemed to smiling down on us with this discovery. Now if only luck deemed that every necromorph would spontaneously combust. Somehow though I doubt that we're that lucky.

"Got it Hammond. We'll go down to the crew deck and get the boards." I replied, smiling from under my helmet.

"I'll meet you there. Hammond out." And with that the link cut.

I signaled for Jason and Isaac to follow me as we went back up to the tram. We needed to find some navigation boards

* * *

**What is up people? Imma be BACK!**

**First I want to say sorry for the wait. I keep looking at my computer and telling myself to get back to typing but just couldn't. Plus I've had a bit of a writers block with this chapter. That and I've been playing Black Ops 2. I'll try to get more of these chapters out at a faster pace.**

**Many thanks to all those who waited for this to come out. I will see all of you next time.**

**Arokhsteel out.**


	11. The Doctor and his Monster

**AN: I own nothing.**

Chapter 10: The Doctor and his Monster

(Alex P.O.V)

The three of us stepped off the tram and onto the crew deck, ready to find the nav-boards and put an end to this torture. When I took my first look around I noticed that there were tiny candle like devices, all of them alight.

'You think the power had gone out in this area some time ago?' Jason mentally asked.

I shrugged, 'Maybe, there's more down and through that room so it must have at one point.'

My RIG link opened up and Hammond took up the screen. The security chief wore a frown on his face.

"What happened?" Isaac asked from behind me.

_"It's Kendra, I haven't been able to get a hold of her. one minute I had a strong fix on her RIG, the next it just vanishes."_ He stated.

"How could that have happened? Do you think that the person who was blocking you is doing the same to her?" Jason asked.

Hammond shook his head_ "No, when a RIG is blocked it's like covering a speaker on an audio recorder, you're still able to get some readings from the RIG." _He explained, _"No, this is like her RIG just… turned off."_

I heard Isaac gasp behind me. "That should be impossible. A RIG is linked to the spine and reads electrical impulses from the brain, as long as the person is in physical condition nothing short of having it removed surgically would turn it off." He said in a matter of fact tone.

"Couldn't she have just kicked the bucket?" I asked. Isaac and Hammond gave me a funny look.

"Pushing up daisies?" I tried. The look persisted. "Off the tweet? Bought the farm? Bit the dust? Sang her last song?" Now they really looked confused. I sighed, "Is she dead?"Realization donned on Hammond's face while Isaac just nodded in understanding.

_"In any case no, there would have been a user warning, broadcasting her injured status to us, and if she died we'd be alerted. Anyway I couldn't get a hold of her and now have no way of tracking her through the ship."_ My RIG pinged along with Jason's and Isaac's. _"I've sent the three of you a nav-point. You'll need crew cards to get around on this deck. Hurry though. This place creeps me out."_ With that Hammond cut the line. I gave heavy sigh and motioned for the others to follow. We followed the line of candles to the end only to be met with a disturbing sight. Some dozen well preserved bodies covered the floors, their bodies virtually untouched, save for the metal spike that was protruding from each of their heads and the white cloth masks covering them, laying under a alcove in the wall, a second floor right above. The even more disturbing thing was the wall; it was covered in some form of language, written in blood. It didn't make sense due to the fact it was in some alien language, but even with that it was clear that whoever did the writing was a special kind of insane. I guess that's a given since whoever did this had written this in blood. Even still, the strange markings formed some kind of consistency in the beginning but when we hit the middle the writing became more erratic, towards the end it descended into complete gibberish. In front of the wall was a pedestal and on that pedestal sat a sculpture of something, taking the form of a double helix. I heard Isaac groan from behind me when his sight caught the sculpture.

"What's up?" I asked. The engineer turned to me.

"That's what the unitologists worship. They call it the marker. It's a lot bigger; we found it on the planet and pulled it up. Then the killings begin, soon after a week the whole ship is on edge before we go into lockdown. I'm not totally sure, but somehow what's going on has to do with that marker." He said, eyeing the sculpture warily, as if it were a cobra. Primed to strike at any moment.

_"Correct Mr. Clarke."_ Spoke an electronic voice. We all spun to the sound to see a large hologram much like that of our RIG links. The screen itself held the image of a somewhat large man, his suit indicating he's work on medical deck. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties, his hair was swept to the side and looked to be blonde, although the pale blue color of the link didn't really help.

"Dr. Kyne." Isaac said, stepping forward.

"You know this guy Isaac?" Jason asked as he gave the doc a calculating look.

The engineer nodded. "Yeah, he worked with Nicole on the medical deck. Technically he's her boss."

_"Correct Mr. Clarke. While I'm sure you have questions on Ms. Brennan's whereabouts the fact of the matter is that I do not know where she is." _Kyne said, answering Isaac's unasked question. _"Besides there are more important matters to attend to. The Red Marker."_ An image of what had to be the Marker popped up right next to Kyne's own. I quickly got why it was called the Red Marker as this image was in color and showed all the runes that covered the artifacts surface glow blood red. _"This was brought up by the excavation team on Aegis 7, within twenty four hours this ship the USG Ishimura was sent to retrieve it via orders from the church."_ Isaac stiffened from next to me.

"Which church?" I asked, but I had a feeling I already knew.

_"Unitology."_ Was the doctor's simple answer, this time I heard Isaac growl. However Kyne was undeterred. _"However we are here illegally, and the Marker, was the prize of this skirmish. The Marker is the cause of all of this, the necromorphs, the delusions that followed its excavation. It is the cause of all of it."_ The doctor whipped around violently, as if he'd just been hit by some invisible source. _"I don't have much time, we need to meet. I'll send the coordinates soon. For now you must stay vigilant. Find the navigation boards. Then head to the security station. We will speak there."_ And with that the line cut. I turned to look at the others when my RIG link opened up and a very familiar face with it.

Dr. Challus Mercer's face.

A heavy scowl made its way to my face when I caught sight of the deranged doctor's insane smirk.

_"We meet again my friend."_ He said, his voice dripping with insanity, his bearded face covered in dried gore.

"What do you want?" I growled out, "We don't have time for your insane ravings." To my great irritation, the smirk never left his face. To my even greater irritation it grew.

_"Oh but you do."_ He replied smoothly, _"Your time is closing in. Soon you will join your brothers, waiting for the transcendence. Just as Mr. Temple is, and just as he shall be."_ Before I could make any kind of retort the link feed panned to the side until it stopped on a even more familiar face.

Zachary Hammond's face.

My eyes widened in horror when he came up on the screen. He looked like he was just coming out of unconsciousness; most likely Mercer caught him off guard and managed to get the drop on him. I didn't wait for the madman to start talking like he undoubtedly would have; I activated my locator and followed the light blue beam with my eyes to an elevator which went up to the second floor.

'Not enough time for that.' I though frantically I looked back at Jason 'Hurry, I'll need your help.' I thought before I ran back out in front of the alcove and jumped. I due to my enhanced muscle mass I sailed up and over the railing and onto the third, landing rather clumsily due to my inexperience with landings. Thankfully I recovered quickly and turned to the door that would hopefully lead me to Hammond. As I dashed up to it I heard the telltale sounds of the elevator behind me rising. I slammed my fist into the open interface, denting the metal of the door. When it opened in the most painfully slow way possible I was greeted with the sight of Hammond tied down to a chair from behind a window looking into the mess hall, Mercer standing a few feet away from him, his back to me. Hammond was glaring weakly at the deranged doctor, who held a metal spike not unlike those in the bodies we had found in his hand. I stormed up to the window and gave the doctor the hardest glare I could muster from under my helmet.

"You came rather quick." Mercer drawled out, not turning to look at me.

"Let him go." I demanded, "Or I'll come in there and make you let him go." A hiss brought to my attention that Jason and Isaac had arrived.

Mercer just laughed. "No… no I do not thinks so. This man has bravely accepted his fate." He said, moving closer to Hammond.

I snarled at the madman as I raised a fist to strike the glass, "Knock knock psycho!" I shouted before launching my fist forward. It sailed towards the glass, but Mercer never even gave me a second glance. About six inches from the glass electricity arched through the glass surface and into my hand. Every muscle contracted, every nerve ending felt as if it was on fire as the electrical current ripped through my body, the metal suit amplifying the intensity of it preventing any kind of sound from escaping my lungs. It was about five seconds before I was launched backwards. I hit the ground with a pained thud, twitching from the remaining electrical currents jumping through my body.

"A valiant effort." Mercer mocked with a laugh, "But wasted in the end. I've set the disruptor shielding to organic matter, you won't be getting in. He will be transformed, embraced by the Hive Mind. "

I slowly forced myself into an upright position, my teeth clenched as the shock had yet to leave my system. Hammond managed to look in my direction, his half lidded eyes held something, something I couldn't recognize. But when he looked at me like that I felt a cold pit in my stomach.

"Live." He whispered. It was so soft I almost hadn't heard it. "All of you. Get off this hulk, live." Mercer roughly grabbed his chin and force the security officer to look at him.

"Live." Mercer raised the metal spike. "And please. Don't let me become one of them." He brought the spike down. A sound of the spike entering his head was probably the worst noise I could have possibly heard, I was familiar with it, how could I not be, with all the necromorphs I'd killed it become a kind of soundtrack to the low hum of my energy blades and the sound of Jason's weapons going off. This shouldn't have been any different. Yet it was, it sounded _wrong_. In no way should it have been different, but it was. A bitter taste found its way into my mouth. I idly looked up at Jason to see he wasn't fairing any better. His whole body was stiff, the PCR clattered to the floor, his limp fingers unable to support its weight. Then I felt something in my mind click. The world around me slowed to a crawl as I watched Mercer let go of the spike, I watched as Hammond's body hit the floor, his eyes now dull, devoid of any life.

"There take him, embrace him!" Mercer's mad voice brought me out of my thoughts and back into the world. "Transform him! Make him as one of you!" My hand curled into a tight fist. A flurry of emotions came upon me, sadness, despair, disbelief, hopelessness. But all of that was quickly decimated by the next thing I felt. Rage, pure and simple. It rocketed through my system like adrenaline. Yet despite this I remained perfectly still. I should have been shaking in absolute fury but I remained totally still. After what felt like an eternity, I reached out, taking hold of the PCR and slowly pushing myself up. When I was at my full height I pressed the rifle into Jason, forcing him out of his shocked state.

He looked at me then to his rifle, slowly he took the weapon. I let my hand drop before looking back to the madman.

"Pray" I said quietly, but loud enough to catch his attention. "Pray that your precious necromorphs find you." The mad doctor just laughed, somehow amused with what I had said. I however wasn't finished, "Because if I find you first, there won't be anything left to turn." I stepped forward slamming my fist into the wall by the window.

"So pray to your necromorphs! Because I am COMING FOR YOU!" I roared. For the slightest of seconds, Mercer's smirk faltered. Then his face twisted into a heavy scowl.

"It will be a wasted effort." He all but growled out, "This is the fate of all mankind. And there is nothing you can do to stop it."

I gave a hollow laugh, scaring myself slightly, but the fear never made its way to my voice. "Fate is taking a back seat on this one. It's just you, me, Jason" I extended the energy blade on my free hand, "and three feet of solidified energy." I heard Jason's rifle come to life, out of my peripheral vision I saw Jason aiming down the weapon's sights. The laser sights aimed at his chest.

A smile suddenly came to the man's face, although it was obviously forced it still did the job of pissing me off even more.

"What you wish to happen and what will happen are two entirely different things." He said in a tone of forced confidence, "Good bye, the next we meet it will be at your transcendence." And with that he left. In seconds he was out of view, my hand slid from the dent it had made in the wall and fell back to my side, my other hand joining it, energy blade deactivated

"Come on." Isaac urged, placing a hand on my shoulder, "We need to get the cards, and take care of his body." I turned my head to the engineer, not really looking at him. Even after all this I never would have thought that seeing someone get killed would have such an effect on me. 'I suppose nothing could prepare me for this. Killing necromorphs is easy, but watching someone die is entirely different.' I thought to myself, momentarily forgetting the link.

'Nothing could have prepared us. But we can't just stand here.' Jason thought back, 'Right now we need to get the cards he had on him, then we can deal with his body.' I looked back at the wall before forcing myself to stand upright. Nodding slightly we all entered the mess hall and made our way to Hammond's corpse, weaving though various debris scattered through the room. Once we right next to his corpse. I knelt next to the man and took a hold of the metal spike still lodged in his skull; with a hard jerk I ripped it from his head. I looked at it for a moment before I crushed it and tossed it to the side. Isaac knelt down next to me and gently rolled the body over, exposing his RIG. He opened his own and made a few commands before Hammond's leapt to life and two cards appeared just to the side. Soon after the RIG shut down once more, Jason and I both picked up a card. We made a quick search through the pantries the three of us found some cooking oil and a lighter. I wasn't sure if it would do the trick but it was all we had found. We poured all of the liquid on Hammond's body, lit the lighter, and tossed it in. Thankfully it did the trick and Hammond lit up in a blaze of orange. We all stood there for a moment paying our respects to the man and left, splitting up to find the three nav-boards.

ΩΩΩ

Dr. Challus Mercer felt strange. Wrong, something in his mind railed on about them, the two who traveled with Clarke. Something about them feeling wrong. The man staggered to his knee's grasping his at his head, in an attempt to stop the pain. In another situation he would have welcomed the feeling as the Marker speaking to him but this wasn't it, it felt different. As if something was eating through his head.

_"They cannot be allowed!"_ A harsh and cruel voice whispered. Mercer looked up to see a shadow floating in the air, blood red 'eyes' looking at him with distain. _"Do not allow them to succeed! Kill them! Allow them to succeed and ascension will be kept from you!"_ Mercer jerked violently, fear and madness raging through his eyes.

"NO!" He yelled frantically. "I can't be denied! I've worked so hard!" The shadow gave the doctor a hardened glare.

_"Then kill them!"_ it roared,_ "Do not allow them to succeed and you will be rewarded!"_ with that the shadow disappeared, nothing pertaining to it having been there on the first place. Mercer took in a few heavy breaths.

'I can't be denied!' he thought frantically, 'I won't be denied!' he pulled out a metal spike from his RIG. Looking at the object for the longest of times. He tightened his grip on the weapon and opened his RIG interface, cycling through the windows. Soon he stopped at one that showed a video of a lone necromorph stuck inside of a glass tube. He smiled insanely before pressing a key which read **Thaw**. They would die, he would not be denied his ascension, and his child would make sure of that.

ΩΩΩ

Hathaway scowled slightly as he looked over the set specs of the two kids. They weren't any kind of special ops by any means, but he had to say it was impressive for two children with no type of training (not including the skills that were telepathically downloaded), to do as well as they were. He gave credit where credit was due, didn't mean he had to like it. He sighed and took a swig of his coffee, grimacing as he fought the urge to gag at the taste. He really hated it but it did help on long shifts. Still it didn't negate the fact that it tasted like piss.

"You still all bent out of shape?" a voice asked him. Hathaway would have groaned but he restrained himself, settling to give a glare at the voice's origin. It being a tall man, his red hair hanging over his dark green eyes, his form covered in the standard issue body armor.

"Not in the mood Mathew." He all but growled out.

Mathew just smirked, "Come on Jackie." He said humorously, "We're off duty, so it's just Max." Hathaway ground his teeth at Mathew's use of his name, Jack. Mathew was another one of the guards on the station, also another one of the people who seemed to have no problem with the two boys being chosen to save the multiverse.

"Come on give the two a break, they've done well so far. Most can't claim to survive as long as they have." Mathew said as he sat down to the annoyed guard.

"And so the record begins again." Hathaway mumbled lowly, Mathew however heard him and arched an eyebrow in confusion, silently prompting his coworker to explain. Hathaway sent the red haired man a hard glare, " 'Give them a chance' " he growled out, " 'They've survived this long so they might just work.' " The blond haired man gritted his teeth and gripped the edge of the table he was sitting at tightly.

"They know NOTHING of the real world!" He half shouted half snarled, surprising Mathew. "The world they know is in their stupid little GAMES! Sure they do well now but just wait! Once they have to hold a gun, have to look a man in the eye and pull the trigger, once they have to watch as the life drains from his eyes. They. Will. BREAK!" Mathew edged away from the blond captain. The read head suddenly became aware of multiple eyes being directed in there general direction. He looked around the mess hall to see that nearly all eyes were on them, or to be more accurate, Hathaway. The captain, scowled at all the people, he stood, gathered up the specs and walked to the door. Stopping at it to turn and say three words.

"You're all fools."

ΩΩΩ

(Alex P.O.V)

"I hate puzzles." I ground out as I moved the various bunks in an attempt to gain access to the nav-board. "Why are the bunks even set like this in the first place?" I asked myself as I stepped through the gap I had created. "Must make late night snakes a real pain." I followed the path that the beds seemed to be set in to come to the sight of a multitude of bloodied bodies littering the floor.

'Candles' illuminating the room. I scowled from under my helmet; the arrangement of the bodies was that of a pile, and all of the bodies had some nasty lacerations, like they were done with blades. Necromorphs were near me, playing a game of hide and seek.

"ha ha ha ha ha ha he heh…" laughed a voice. I spun to face the origin, only to be slightly sickened by what I saw. A woman covered head to toe in gore, cuts adorning her body, and a mad Joker-like grin taking residence on her face. I took a few cautious steps to the clearly unstable woman as she continued to crackle madly. When I was within five feet of her she moved her right hand upwards. Showing the pistol in it. I jumped back, priming my energy projectors. She however didn't notice or didn't care as she continued to raise the weapon. I tensed and prepared to fire when the barrel was pointed at me, but was surprised when it continued to move. I watched slightly bewildered as the woman brought the weapon up and under her chin.

"You can't have me." she said in an eerie sing song voice. "Monsters won't have me." I raised my hands in a calming manner taking a step back.

"Hey it's okay, I'm here to help." I said slowly and carefully, "The… monsters can't get you right now." The woman gave a throaty snort in return. "No…" she said her voice going quiet. "They can." He voice became more erratic. "They will." She tightened her grip on the gun.

"Hey don't do it, I can help you. There are other survivors. We can protect each other." I said a bit desperately. The woman lowered the gun a bit before speaking.

"No. You can't." then before could react she pulled the trigger, her head exploded into a fountain of gore, her body falling limp afterwards. I ground my teeth together in frustration before noticing a faint glow. I walked up to the light and my RIG designated it as the nav-board I was looking for. With a sigh I knelt down and picked up the card, storing it into my RIG inventory. I pushed myself up and turned to leave when my comm. opened up.

_"This time there will be no escape for you my friend."_ Said the crazed voice of Dr. Challus Mercer, _"You have been most resourceful up until now, but that ends here."_ My face contorted into a heavy scowl, I was in no mood to listen to his ravings.

"Bite me." I barked out "Rant and rave all you want, it won't change the fact that when I find you, I'm going to use your spine as a back scratcher.

_"Your time has come!"_ Mercer shouted, seeming not hearing me. _"My child is free again! And now you will play your part!" _As if on cue a crash resounded behind me. I turned my head the necessary amount to see a large and very clearly pissed off Hydra looking at me.

"Motherf-""RAAAR" The Hydra took a huge swipe at me, catching me by the side, interrupting me mid curse. I skid to the side, before turning and throwing a haymaker at the necromorph, the attack sending the creature fly back, impacting the wall with a heavy thud. I'm sure it would have roared at me again but I advanced on the regenerating necromorph. I needed to let out a _lot_ of steam. I threw a right at the creature's chest, feeling a satisfying crunch as the attack shattered bone. Then a quick left, impacting the side of its head. I could unfortunately already hear the bones in the necro's chest healing again. I suppose this could be seen as a blessing, it meant I got to really let out some aggression. I beat down on the necro's rapidly healing body with a flurry of hits. Each one breaking newly mended bone over and over again. The metal groaning slightly as each hit seemed to dig the monster deeper into it. I took a large step back, rearing my arm backwards before launching it forwards. The target? The Hydra's head. The effect was the creature's skull imploding. With a growl I ripped my fist out of the space that once held the necromorphs head and gripped both of its bladed arms. I planted a foot on the Hydra's chest and pulled. Seconds later my foot sunk as it made a large depression in the monster's chest, two more seconds later, both arms ripped off. Being not too keen on the thought of two mini-me hunters I tossed both arms into the air, activated my energy blades and sliced the appendages apart. With that I turned and began to walk away ignoring the Hydra and its newest head's roars. I weaved through the metal bunks, using my strength to push the large metal bunks apart and back together, using them as a way to keep the Hydra from getting to me too quickly when it managed to dislodge itself from the wall. I opened up a comm. with Isaac and Jason.

"You guys got your nav-boards?" I asked.

_"Yeah I got mine. Had a nasty scrap with a few with a lurker but no worse for wear."_

_" Took a bit of work but yes." _ Were their quick replies.

"Good, we'll meet in the security station. Keep your guard up though. Mercer freed the Hydra and it's on the deck. I… trapped it but there's no telling how long it'll stay that way."

_"Got it, weapons primed at all times." _Isaac confirmed

_"Roger, Roger."_ Was Jason's annoying imitation of a robot, the line cutting after

My eye twitched slightly in irritation.

'Idiot' I thought at my friend, getting only a snort in response. While walking I activated my locator, and followed the blue line to the security station. Finding the both Jason and Isaac had somehow beaten me to it. With I sigh I pressed the interface and the door slid open showing a rather small room the far section separated by a wall with two windows. On the other side of was Kyne, his back to us, pacing the back and forth. We all stepped up to the glass, Kyne never noticing us as he whispered to himself. Jason looked at me before tapping the glass. Kyne spun around faster than I thought possible and blinked when he saw us, relief dancing across his face.

"You made it!" he exclaimed, raising he hands as if praising some god of his. "Thank god you made it." Case and point. "I've been following your progress. I know you want to repair the shuttle and escape, but escape is impossible at this point! Mercer removed the nav-cards from the ship!" I blinked in surprise. 'The nav-cards? But he just had us get them. Why would he be worried about the cards? How is escape impossible?' I thought.

"NO!" Kyne shouted suddenly, startling me. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" he said frantically. "Don't give up hope!" He looked down as shame flashed across his features. "At first I lost hope. Tried to scuttle the ship, disable the systems. But she changed it." Kyne turned looking at something to his side for the briefest of moments before turning back. "The church! They think the Marker is divine!" He cried out "But they don't know what's happened here! They don't know what's been released!"

'Jason, something's telling me that Dr. Kyne isn't entirely sane.' I thought to my friend

'Yeah, just look at him; he's shaking like a leaf.' He thought back.

Kyne whirled around facing us. "L-l-look at this!" he tapped his wrist and a RIG link screen popped up in front of him. It showed what had to be the planet's surface; it went on for a few seconds before a large mass rose from the ground, roaring as it did so. The video abruptly closed.

"That is what we found." He said "At the core of the planet. Mercer calls it the 'Hive Mind'. It's the source. Controlling the necromorphs telepathically!" He threw his hands down his face contorting into anger. "We were so stupid! Amelia…" His face softened at the mention of the name. he looked to the side. My eyes followed him and for an instant I saw something. It was shorter than the man but not by much, taking the shape of a person, a woman. While 'her' body was a shroud of shadow, not unlike the girl I've been seeing. The difference was 'her' body was covered in blood red markings. Not unlike those we'd seen on the wall back by the tram. But as suddenly as she appeared she disappeared again. I gave Jason a sideways glance. 'Did you…'

'Yeah.'

"She knew, she knew it could be stopped, by returning the Marker to the planet." Kyne continued as he looked back at us. "It was what was containing the Marker _within_ the planet. Return the Marker, and seal the hive mind."

He looked down, his shoulder's slumping in a sudden depression. "Please Amelia…" he moaned quietly, "I bear much of the responsibility for this tragedy." He paced slightly. Almost as if he was trying to avoid some invisible person's gaze. "Now I must take responsibility for ending it. Atone for my sins." The woman's shade appeared again, her hands on Kyne's shoulders, her head leant in as if whispering in his ear. One strange thing was her eyes. While I couldn't see them at my current angle, I could defiantly see the flash light effect they were giving off. The unnatural light seemed to both illuminate and darken the room at the same time.

Kyne looked back at us. "And the three of you can help me. Repair the shuttle, get the Marker on board, and we can end this… forever."

I looked at the doctor carefully, sizing him up. While I wasn't all too sure we should trust him, we didn't exactly have a lot of options.

I gave a hesitant nod and the doctor tapped his wrist, activating some hidden function. On cue a door to our right opened up. I gave the doctor and the woman looking at us from over his shoulder. Against my will a cold shiver ripped through my spine from under her gaze, like someone was walking on my grave. I gave one last glance before exiting, Jason and Isaac following right behind.

ΩΩΩ

It was quick trip to the shuttle bay, and ultimately uneventful. This allowed me to think on the case of Kyne, or to be more specific; the woman. She looked somewhat like the little girl we had been running into; the only difference that, while strange had a kind of, warm, feeling to her, that and her cheerful disposition sets you at ease. The woman though, it felt like my insides were taking an ice bath just by looking at her. Everything that could be wrong with her was wrong. With a heavy sigh I shook my head, trying to rid it of the thoughts plaguing it. I stepped into the shuttle, scanning the area for a place. Within a few seconds I found a loose panel and pushed the cards into their places. Jason and Isaac stepped into a nearby control center and began a system's check. Suddenly though the quarantine alarm went off, and a loud crash echoed through the room. I sped out of the shuttle and looked to the origin of the crash to see one Hydra, and it looked _really _pissed off.

* * *

**Arokhsteel reporting for duty.**

**What's up guys? I've been trying to get this one out for a while now but it just kept fighting me. As a result this chapter ended up being a bit longer than I normally do. Thanks for being patient with me on this one.**

**I'm out**


	12. Death of the Monster, Fall of the Doctor

**AN: I own nothing**

"Necromorph!"~ Person talking

_"Incoming!/ Daddy?"_~ Person talking over comm./RIG link/ shade speech

**Please vacate the area**~ Computer speaking/text

'Be careful man.'~ Thought/telepathic communication

Chapter 11: Death of the Monster, Fall of the Doctor

(Alex P.O.V)

I ducked under the horizontal swipe the Hydra sent me. I retaliated with a energy bolt to the chest, causing the necromorph to stumble backwards.

"Jason, Isaac!" I shouted into the comm.

_"We'll look for something; in the mean time don't you dare die on us!" _Jason shouted back.

'Cause I was real keen to dying.' I thought back, dodging a sideways swipe. I backpedalled, gaining some distance between me and the necromorph. The strange thing was that it didn't make any move to advance on me, just stood there as I backpedaled. After about ten feet I came to an abrupt stop as I hit something big and fleshy. I reached behind myself, feeling the strangely organic wall. I suppose it would I looked rather comical as I felt up the obstruction.

Then I felt something familiar, while large I found a pair of arms, I slowly trailed my hands up the object, then I found something closely reminiscent to that of a head. I looked up to see the eyes of a Brute, staring back at me, my armored hands gripping strands of rotting flesh still attached to the necromorphs deformed face. I said about the only thing that came to mind.

"Crap."

Taking this as the green light the large necromorph roared and threw its meaty arms around me, taking an iron like hold on my torso. I yelled out as the creature lifted me and began to squeeze. I struggled against the creature, using all my strength to push against the creature. It was showing some progress, until I heard the roar of the Hydra, which I had failed to notice its advance on me due to my current situation. The slasher like necro thrust a scythe blade forward, attempting to spear my head. In a split second decision I threw my head to the side, the deadly blade sailing mere centimeters past my helmet and into the face of the Brute. I took that moment to mule kick the Hydra, launching it away from me and my necromorph captor. The combination of the blade to the face and the sudden recoil of my kick to the Hydra seemed to stun the brute for the smallest of seconds.

That was all I needed to act, with renewed effort I ripped myself out of the abomination's grip and turned. I clenched my right hand, the energy blade on top of it springing to life, and with shout I slammed my fist and the energy weapon into the necro's chest. The beast stumbled back as a result of the impact. With a guttural roar, I swung my fist to the side, partially bisecting the brute as I did so. I readied to swing back again but a small nudge in the back of my mind made me jump backwards. I sailed through the air and not a second later a Leaper landed in my previously vacated spot.

The nudge became a push as I suddenly flipped backwards and landed on my feet in a crouch, only fifteen feet away from my launch site. Seconds later my body was my own again and I stumbled a bit before catching myself. I looked ahead, my eyes scanning the area as more necros began to crawl out of the vents, a Leader among them. I glanced over to where the Hydra had landed not ten feet away from me to find the creature on its feet, the necromorph's crimson orbs burning into me. In a manner of seconds, the room was occupied by three Slashers and two Leapers hanging by the Brute, a trio of Lurkers now taking comfortable residence on the brute's back, two necromorphs I recognized as exploders holding position by the vents away from the main horde. Then there was the leader, standing on top of the shuttle, snarling at me.

"Crap on a stick." I said out loud

_"Hold on man!" _Jason shouted into the comm. _"I just need more time to find something!"_

"Easy for you to say!" I shouted back, activating both my energy blades. "You're not having a staring contest with a horde of necros!" I stood up slightly, keeping sure to stay in a semi crouched stance. The necromorphs just stayed where they were, growling and brandishing their various weapons.

"I'm right here," I growled at them. "You want a piece of me?" I stood up straighter, my feet a shoulders width apart, crossing the energy blades to make an 'x'.

"Then come get some." The Leader roared, and in an instant the slashers shot forwards, sprinting to my location, the Leapers… leaping to my location, the Hydra making a dash to me. My fists tightened as I prepared to strike. As they all neared, time seemed to slow down, my muscles relaxed, fists loosened. Just as the Hydra and Slashers were about on top of me I struck. Shooting forward, slicing one of the Hydra's legs off as I passed it. Taking a swing at a Slasher, bisecting the creature. In a sudden move I spun on the ball of my foot, dodging a swipe from one of the monster's brothers. Using the momentum of the spin to my advantage I deactivated my right energy blade and smashed my fist into the necro's skull, sending the creature to the ground. I stopped my spin and ducked as a Leaper sailed over me and into the third Slasher.

I made an overhead swing, slicing the second Leaper vertically in half. I aimed for the downed necromorphs and fired my whole charge at the three. Pinning them to the floor and ending them. I heard the Hydra's distinctive roar and spun around, only to get a nasty slash across my helmet. I was rather lucky the helmet was there because I was fairly sure it would have taken my head off. But regardless the hit sent me stumbling. I stopped and turned around just in time to catch the necromorph as it lunged at me. Lucky for me while the Hydra was bigger than me, I was stronger than him. I tossed it into the side of the shuttle.

Then an unfamiliar yelp caught my attention, I turned my head and noticed that the exploders were gone from their posts. In fact, one of them was actually right behind me, its sack of god knows what about to come down on me. Having only a split second to react I shot forward, hoping to get away from the explosion. As it seemed however, I wasn't fast enough and the massive sack of flesh slammed into my back. The explosion was like a release of highly compressed air, it was somewhat negated by my armor but it still hurt like hell. I landed hard on my chest. A second yelp filled the air and I looked back to see that the second exploder was closing in on me. Still nowhere near enough that the explosion would harm any of the other necros. Still though I rolled onto my back and fired a single bolt at the explosive sack. The energy based javelin passed through the sack like a knife through water. Not a second later the sack exploded, the exploder was torn apart like wet tissue paper. As quickly as I could I pushed myself up, and backpedaled to the back of the shuttle. The Brute looked up at the Leader, which just roared and pointed one of its bone blades at me. That seemed to be the signal it was waiting for because the thing reared up and charged, the Lurkers hitching a ride on its back priming their launchers.

"Why is it I'm always the target?" I grumbled to myself as I prepared for another fight.

ΩΩΩ

(Jason P.O.V)

I let out a frustrated growl as my hands danced across the interface.

"There has to be something!" I yelled as Isaac did what he could on the other terminal.

"I know but we've been locked out of the system! Nothing is working!" Isaac yelled back.

I gnashed my teeth as I closed my current window and opened a second, trying to make a working bypass.

"What can you tell me about the block?" I asked hastily, never looking away from the interface.

"Just that it's local. Someone in this part of the ship is stopping the transfer." The engineer replied hastily.

"How local is local?" I asked, growling as the attempted bypass failed again.

"Uh…" Isaac ran a quick scan over the system and looked back to me, "Thirty feet."

I jerked my head to look at him. "How could it be that close? There aren't any terminals in the area."

"No it doesn't originate from a terminal. It's coming from a RIG."

I turned back to my interface and began a search for nearby RIGs. Four blips appeared on the screen each having a number hovering by it; three of these were obviously us, what with Alex's jumping around as he avoided the lurker barbs being launched at him. The fourth however was forty meters behind our signals, and moving in quick. I looked behind us only to see the metal wall. I quickly looked back at Isaac.

"Can you do a search for RIG KD469?" I asked the engineer. He gave a quick nod and went fast to work, typing in the RIG number.

"There's a block on the search system give me a minute." He said his frustration clear.

Thirty meters.

I looked back at the wall again, looking for any way into the room behind us to find nothing. I glanced back at the screen.

Twenty five meters.

"I'm almost through the block!" Isaac yelled out.

Twenty meters.

"Well hurry because it's closing in on us!" I yelled back, priming the PCR.

Fifteen meters.

I looked back at the screen, and began a search for all ways into the room.

Ten meters.

There was the door, all vent systems passed over the room.

Five meters.

"Got it! Beginning search!" Isaac exclaimed.

Three meters.

There was no way in.

Two meters

"Got it!"

One meter

Except the maintenance ducts

Zero.

I spun around as a mechanical whir sounded through the air. I brought my eyes to the offending ducts opening. The door slid open and a pair of legs dangled out of the opening. After a second of hanging the person hopped out of the shaft and landed right in front of me. I had my PCR out ready to kill, which was until I saw the person's face.

"Kendra? I asked, bewildered.

Standing right in front of me, javelin launcher in hand, her usually brown hair matted and red with blood, her once white uniform, ripped and torn with several bloody bandages covering the wounds that followed with them.

"What in the hell happened to you?" I asked before suddenly shaking my head. "No! Doesn't matter! Listen we've got a block on the whole system and it's stopping us from activating the shuttle here. Think you can get through it?" Kendra took in a few deep breaths before hocking up a bloody loogie onto the floor.

"Yeah." She said rather weakly, as she took a few wobbly steps to the interface. With a quick regain of her balance she placed shaky hands on the interface and began a bypass.

"Alex! Good news!" I said into my comm.

(Alex P.O.V)

I ducked under the Brute's massive swing and shot my fist out, energy blade glowing. The blade sunk into the monsters chest. With a roar I brought the blade to the side, completely cleaving the necromorph in two. Then in a split second decision I jumped and drop kicked the beast's upper half. The hit was enough to send it toppling backwards and crush its passengers.

"Such as what?" I asked my friend from over the comm. Ducking as the Hydra made a wide horizontal swing.

_"It's Kendra she's alive and with us."_ He said

I shoulder slammed the Hydra and tossed it into a wall.

"I've yet to hear any good news." I drawled out, turning to fire a flurry of energy bolts at the Leader still taking residence on the shuttle. The necromorph noticed the attack too late and took the full assault head on, knocking off the shuttle.

_"I know she's not the easiest person to like but how about a little censorship with the contempt? At least until she finds a way to for us to help you."_ He replied in a semi chiding manner.

I rolled my eyes and jogged over to the other side of the shuttle to where the Leader had landed. One of the energy bolts must have done the right kind of damage because the creature was using its bone scythes as a means of crawling across the floor. It gave a quick glance behind it and saw me. A second later it let out a short roar/yelp and the roar of the Hydra was heard through the air. I glanced behind myself to see that the necromorph had sufficiently healed from the beat down I'd given it and was now taking long strides to get to me before I got to its commander.

'Probably should have thrown in a People's Elbow for good measure.' I thought to myself.

'And that would have done what?' Jason thought back.

I smirked from under my helmet. 'It would've looked awesome. I heard a mental sigh as I turned back to the crawling necromorph. I held out my projector and fired. The lone energy bolt sailed through the air and nailed the Leader right through the back of the skull. This seemed to be the final straw and the necro fell limp. With that bit of work done I spun around to come face to face with the Hydra, which seemed to hunch over from its usual towering height to look me.

"Bloit." I groaned.

With that the large necromorph tackled me, swinging wildly as it tried to get a successful blow. It was only a mild irritation, given my stronger body; the tackle hadn't floored me like it would have anyone else. Instead it only pushed me back slightly. I was beginning to feel very annoyed, sure it's a major danger in the beginning, but only because we didn't know what the nanobots had done to it. Now that we did it was very easy to avoid cutting off its limbs so that its mini-me's wouldn't be a problem, especially for me since I could just hammer the crap out of it and that would be the end of it. I gave a hard push and the Hydra skid back.

_"Alex do you know how Heracles killed the Hydra?"_ Jason asked suddenly through the comm.

I blinked in surprise, not expecting the question. "Is now really the time?" I shot back hotly.

_"Fine I'll tell you."_ My friend said, not at all put off by my outburst. Then the ship computer suddenly spoke up.

**Test firing shuttle engines.**

_"He killed it by fire."_ Then the back of the shuttle lit up in a roar of bright orange flame, drawing the eyes of both me and the Hydra. Before I could stop myself a wild and uncontrolled grin came to on my face.

"Dude if you were a chick, better looking, and had an awesome rack I could kiss you right now." I said as I crouched, readying for necromorph Barbeque. The Hydra looked back at me and must have caught on to my thought process because as soon as its eyes met mine it snarled viciously and came at me on full tilt. In a split second decision I flipped onto my back and mule kicked the charging necro when it got close. The Hydra flew through the air and landed just beside the back of the shuttle, which engines had ceased firing. The necromorph landed heavily on its back. I held out a hand and activated my kinesis mod. The transparent blue beam leapt forward and ensnared the undead monster. I lifted my hand, urging the beam to follow, albeit slowly, the kinesis mod was meant to do heavy lifting on objects that were primarily made of metal, and even then it wasn't lifting the full weight. Organic objects it was even harder to lift. The small device struggled to lift the four hundred pound necromorph. I took slow and careful steps towards the creature so as to not deactivate the module by accident. The Hydra however wasn't making it easy; it thrashed in the devices invisible grip. Thankfully it didn't much. I prepared to throw the regenerating necromorph in front of the engine when a frantic voice yelled out.

"NOOO!"

I looked behind me to see Mercer running up to me, his face the very personification of insanity. His arm raised up high, a metal spike in hand. A cruel smile found my face. Two birds, one stone. The shuttles engine roared to life and I tossed the Hydra into the fire. The necromorph screamed out as the searing heat burned it down. I watched as it tried to move, only to have its legs disintegrate out from under it, its arms burned away like sand in the wind. It hit the ground with a muted thud, its eyes meeting mine one last time, just then I think I saw something that I did not think I would ever see in a necromorph. Fear. Then in that last moment the monster was burned away, becoming little more than charred ash.

With a satisfied sigh I turned to face Mercer as he ran up to me, never once making any move as he closed the space between us. Then just when he was on top of me, just as he was about to bring his hand down and with it the spike. I struck. I dodged to the left, his weapon sailing past me harmlessly; with extreme ease I wrapped my right arm around his own, then it took my free hand and slammed my fist into his elbow. The mad doctor screamed in pain as his bones exploded out of his body, his hand went limp, and his weapon dropped from his grasp. The madman crumpled to his knees. I let go of his now useless arm and looked at the man, and for once in the short time I knew the doctor, he looked defeated. No not defeated, that didn't begin to cover it, he was _broken_.

"This can't be." He said in a hoarse whisper, small amounts of blood tricking out of his mouth. "I was supposed to transcend death. Now I will be denied." He swallowed. "After all the good I have done."

I snarled and tightly gripped the sides of the doctor's head. "You'll see just how 'good' you were when you're burning in hell." I growled out.

Mercer gave a slight barking laugh. "You will fail. The Hive Mind will crush you like the worm you are. You will be forgotten."

"Maybe, maybe not." I said, tightening my grip on his head. Eliciting a hiss of pain. "But you won't be there to see it." Then I put the pressure on full force. Mercer held for an instant before his head was crushed between my two hands. Blood and gray matter leaked down and over the metal of my suit, staining it. His limp body crumpled to the ground, his RIG flashed once, before going out. His RIG must have dropped his whole inventory but I didn't pay any mind to it, I just looked down at my blood stained hands. Doctor Challus Mercer was dead, and I had killed him. I had avenged Hammond and all of the lives of those he had ruined. So that only left one question.

Why did I feel so hollow?

Somehow I felt worse. Why this should have been the great moment in the game where you killed the bad guy and avenged all the people he had killed.

"But this isn't a game is it?" I mumbled to myself.

I hadn't killed the villain. What I killed was a mentally unstable man, who had taken lives without blinking. I'd _killed_ someone. Good god I'd killed someone and I _enjoyed _it. I clenched my teeth shut as I felt my stomach fluids begin to travel upwards, trying to do something, anything to rid myself of the disgust that traveled through my system like a flood. The feeling almost overwhelmed me until as small voice spoke.

_"Are you okay daddy?" _Almost instantly the bile in my throat halted, at the sound. My eyes unsteadily moved up from my blood stained hands to see her. The girl. Her eerie yellow eyes looking at me with what I guessed was concern.

"Yeah." I said weakly, not minding the fact I was talking to a shade of a little girl. "Why wouldn't I be?" She took a few steps over to me, stepping over Mercer's limp body without a second glance, and looked at my bloodied hands.

_"Daddy's hands are red." _She said quietly with a childlike innocence. Not really knowing what else to do I just nodded slightly, needlessly confirming her obvious statement.

_"Was he a bad man?" _She asked suddenly. I blinked owlishly, not expecting the question. Then it clicked in my head what she had asked and my eyes darted to Mercer's headless body.

"Y-yes." I said hesitantly, "He was."

The girl tilted her head slightly in a curious gesture. _"He hurt people?"_ I nodded. _"And… daddy hurt him?" _ I nodded again. The girl looked at me for a second, before she closed the distance, gave a little hop and wrapped her short arms around my armored neck before she could meet the ground again. I sucked up a breath in surprise that the girl was hugging me.

_"I have the best daddy."_ She said wistfully. _"You're better than all the other daddies. Got rid of the bad man."_

I blinked, and then smiled softly. She sounded proud that her self-proclaimed daddy had stopped the bad man. I didn't feel that much better, but somehow she made that irrelevant, her childlike glee was contagious. I gently pat he on the back and lowered her to the floor, from which she proceeded beam happily at me.

"Thanks kid." I said gratefully. Suddenly a thought came to me. I didn't know her name, if she even had one. It was probably a stupid idea given she probably didn't exist but I could at least ask.

"Hey what's your name?" Then the girl was practically glowing. She tackle-hugged my leg and giggled.

_"Much better than all the other daddies."_ She said.

'Again with the other daddies. Why does that sound so familiar?' I thought to myself.

"Alex?" I turned to see Jason just behind me, his helmet tilted in just a way to indicate he was looking at the little girl that was attached to my foot.

"Yeah?" I asked back, prompting him to look at me.

"Kyne and Kendra are on the shuttle, they are going to take it to the shuttle deck. That's where the Marker is, the three of us just need to load it on." He told me.

"Shuttle ready to go?"

"Yeah" he said. "Isaac's releasing it now." His head looked down to the body at my feet, then to my hands, and back to me. "Did you…" he left it open.

"Yeah." I said quietly.

Jason turned back to the corpse. "You okay?" he asked. I gave small smile and looked down to the girl who still clung to my leg.

"Yeah. I'm good."

The shuttle shuttered and began to move down, released from the docking clamps.

"We should get going." Jason said, as he walked past me, but not before giving the girl a careful one over. I saw Isaac exit the control room and quickly follow after Jason. I looked back down at Mercer's corpse, finally noticing the inventory he possessed. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw he had been carrying a dozen power nodes, not one but _two_ force guns, and three upgrade schematics. A wicked smile came to my face as I read each one over. I was going to have some fun with these. I quickly pocketed all of the loot, all the while laughing manically in my head, which got me a surprised mental squeak from Jason. Once I had everything I looked down at the girl, who was _still_ clinging to my leg. It was clear she wasn't planning going anywhere anytime soon. With a sigh I reached down and unhooked the girl from my leg and lifted her to meet my helmeted face. Her eyes lit up even more, if that was even possible and she asked with an overjoyed and hopeful voice.

_"Daddy-back ride?"_

I laughed lightly and nodded. "Daddy-back ride."

She let out an excited 'yay!' as I lifted her so she could take hold of my neck, and partake in her 'daddy-back ride'. When she was satisfied with her position on my back I began walking over to the others.

"You know, you never told me your name." I said as she hummed happily from her perch.

_"Angel."_

* * *

**Ha ha! Arokhsteel strikes again!**

**Finally chapter 11 is out! And Dr. Challus Mercer is dead!**

**Thanks for sticking with me on this one, took e a while to get it but it has finally been got!**

**Well I was asked a question by one annethepyro what the word chak means. So basically it is a made up swear word used in a youtube video called inventing swear words, by a really funny guy named Oxhorn. The words are as follows.**

**Chak**

**Grat**

**Wolsh **

**Blit**

**Flak**

**Bloit **

**The videos go up to five (I think), and are really funny to watch, so check them out. **

**Thanks for reading, don't ever forget to review or I will gut all of you... with a fork.**

**Peace out.**


	13. Insanity is a Funny thing

**An: Clearly, I own nothing.**

"Necromorph!"~ Person talking

**"How could you!"**~ supremely pissed person talking

_"Incoming!/ Daddy?"_~ Person talking over comm./RIG link/ shade speech

**Please vacate the area**~ Computer speaking/text

'Be careful man.'~ Thought/telepathic communication

Chapter 12: Insanity is a funny thing.

(Jason P.O.V)

I let out a sigh as I rolled my tired shoulders. The elite armor was heavier than it looked; the whole thing was a chore to move around in. Then there was the restricted movement, keeping me from making my full motions. I didn't help that we were standing for some time waiting for Alex to walk away from the upgrade bench he had used as if it were his own evil chemistry set. For what must have been fifteen minutes we stood there, watching as he tinkered with his gear, the girl, Angel Alex had said was her name, all the while looking over his shoulder as he continued to go through his mad scientist phase. Isaac sat against the wall, resting. Paying absolutely no mind to my friend and shade girl, who only Alex and I could apparently see.

When he finished with his creation he turned and I immediately noticed what it was he had done. Apparently Mercer had two 'Force guns' on his person, and very particular schematics that he had modified. Now the two guns hung securely on his forearms, his energy projector and kinesis module missing from their customary places. He explained that he had taken both modules and the force guns base cores and installed them onto the same apparatus. Basically he had taken the force guns and gave them the capabilities of a kinesis module, and installed the energy blades into projectors he built inside the now arm mounted guns. The Force gun's oomph would be translated into the kinesis function. When he demonstrated his new energy blades, the edge light up in a blue light and extended two feet out in front of his arms.

When it fully formed, I found that the blades had somehow taken on a curved shape, looking more like arm blades that extended forward to a sharp-looking point. Not that ether the blade was dull or sharp; it would still cut through things like a knife through water, so I chalked its sharp look to a more aesthetic means rather than function. Since the blade originated from his arm rather than his wrist it gave his a whole foot of cutting power. He however told me that in making this he couldn't get the bolt projector function to work properly, and it would only be able to handle one of its two uses at a time or it would drain power twice as fast.

After his lengthy explanation we entered the tram and keyed for the flight deck. The ride took us only a minute to span given the closeness of the crew deck to the flight deck. When it came to a full stop we all stepped off, and didn't make two feet before Kyne contacted us via RIG link.

_"Good. The three of you have made it. I am currently approaching the shuttle hangar. You must…"_ he paused as he grimaced, holding his head tightly. His Image suddenly shifted over to show Kendra, her eyes darting over the three of us, almost as if to make sure we were really there. She took in a deep breath and spoke.

_"What he means is that you have to need to go to the Cargo bay. The Maker is stored there." _While she hid it well, as she spoke there was an aggressive shake in her voice. She must have been pretty shaken up from almost dying at the hands of the necromorphs, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost any way. The image zoomed back to Kyne as he looked at us, a pleading look adorning is features.

_"Please. You must help me with this!"_ he said, begging slightly. _"It is the only way! You must!"_ the then the line cut, leaving the three of us to silence.

"I don't feel all that comfortable with him." Isaac said, breaking the silence. "He acts like there's a ghost in the room, stalking him." I saw Alex nod, as he shifted his weight on his feet.

"Yeah, and did you see him talk to some Amelia person? Like she was in the room with us." He asked the engineer.

"Yeah, I did. He wasn't like that before the Marker was brought on board."

I raised an eyebrow from under my helmet, "Why is it everything seems to lead back to that Marker. The infection started with it, Kyne and Mercer both had contact with and the former is losing his mind." I said, using my RIG to project an image of the Marker. I suppressed a small shudder that traveled up my spine, but didn't catch the shudder that rocked through my system. It wasn't even the real thing and it set me on edge.

"What was going on when the thing was brought up?" I asked Isaac.

"Well…" he began, "When it was brought up there were reports about murders and suicides on the colony, I think there were six fatalities in total. Our chief of security, a woman by the name of Alissa Vincent." I blinked in surprise, remembering the name from the terminal back at the check in station. "She really didn't want the Marker up on the ship; from the start she was convinced it was the cause. There hasn't been any contact with her so I assumed she died sometime in the beginning. The necromorphs themselves got on the ship via a shuttle from the colony. After that happened, it only took two hours for a quarter of the crew to become infected. Two more for three quarters. We never stood a chance, by the time we had found out how to fight them it was too late."

I saw Alex take a thoughtful stance, after a few seconds before shaking his head.

"Standing here talking about it isn't going to do us any good. We need to get that Marker to the loading bay." He said, moving past us. We moved through the familiar hallways, never once letting our guard down, even though I was a bit distracted by Angel humming _twinkle, twinkle little star _felt somewhat appropriate, although I couldn't for the life of me explain why that was. It was a relatively short walk we came to the cargo bay, a large open room, with a catwalk that traversed over an empty expanse that held an untold number of crates. I took a step up to the railing and aimed down the PCR's sights, aiming towards a moving shadow in the distance.

"What's the damage?" Alex asked.

After a second more I responded; "One Pregnant, and two Slashers." I looked back at him, "I can take them out from here."

Alex gave a sharp nod. "Do it."

I looked back at the necromorphs and took in a breath to steady myself. Then I fired. The rounds sailed through the air cutting through necromorphs. After a few seconds of burst fire I had reduced the three necromorphs into chopped liver. When we were sure the coast was clear we got on to the elevator and went down a level to the cargo bay floor. We walked over to the cargo delivery system. Isaac stepped up and began to punch in a search for the Marker, it took some time, but eventually he found the right package and brought it up. When the Marker came up and was placed on the delivery system I swear my blood froze over. It towered over us at around twenty feet, the markings covering it glowed a faint bloody red. My ears perked at a soft but noticeable ringing in them. I felt a slight prod in the back of my mind, I focused on it and the prod seemed to be pushed back. A sudden whimper broke my thoughts, I looked back at Angel, who was clearly cowering behind Alex as she clung to his back.

_"Bad."_ She said fearfully. Alex looked back at the girl then to the Marker.

'This thing really pushes me the wrong way.' He thought.

'You and me both. The air seems to freeze around it, light seems to get sucked in, this thing is like a black hole of bad.' I thought back. "Alex. Use your kinesis function to get it over to the transfer zone. Isaac and I'll cover you if need be." Alex nodded, he took a few steps to the alien artifact but before h could activate his kinesis a holographic screen popped up in front of all of us. It was filled with static for an instant before it was replaced by a woman. Unlike all of the other RIG link videos this one was strangely in color. The woman herself from what we could see had tanned brown skin, her hair was swept to the side and shown a deep red, her eyes hazel colored. Her torso was covered in as white shirt and dark brown jacket with some plates of armor on the arms.

She looked exhausted, her form slouched forward, arms hanging slightly at her sides.

_"My name is Alissa Vincent."_ She said, leaning in. _"I was-"_she looked down for a moment then back at us. _"I am the security chief on board the Ishimura. I may be the sole survivor. We encountered an alien life form. They have taken over the bodies of the crew. The colony was lost."_ She hung her head slightly, in what must have been shame. _"My team is dead. The Ishimura is under their control. It is my belief that the artifact we discovered on the surface is somehow responsible."_ We all looked back at the Marker; I unconsciously took a step back. _"It has driven us mad. Turned us against each other." _She continued before giving us a solemn look. _"If you find this recording, the Ishimura and the artifact, must be destroyed." _She looked down, _"Tell those on Earth that many people fought, and died bravely."_ Tears escaped her eyes as she looked at us pleadingly. _"Don't let us be forgotten."_ She wiped away the tears and her eyes gave us a dead stare, _"This is Chief Alissa Vincent, signing off."_ The screen descended into static before blinking away.

We all stood there for some time, paying respects to the long dead woman.

"All these people died, for a fool's errand." Alex said "Pointless waste of life."

"But what she said about the Marker driving them mad, if we take that at face value then, wouldn't that mean that it could be happening to Kyne?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah." I said as the thought crossed my mind. "So, why would that be? Did he have some kind of contact with it?"

Isaac nodded, "Yeah now that I think about it, he was the one the Captain gave the task of studying it. He spent hours on end around the thing. So if it does affect minds then that means he would defiantly have been effected." A sudden roar echoed through the room. I turned to find its origin far too close for comfort. A lone Slasher charged up to me, it was moving fast and was closing the distance fast, I raised my PCR and was about to fire on the creature. However before I could get off a shot the necromorph abruptly stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible wall. I blinked in surprise as the necromorph stumbled back, roared again and repeated the act of crashing into the invisible obstacle; I looked back at my other companions who were giving the necromorph a curious look. It was rather comical seeing the fearsome creature constantly slam itself into whatever was blocking it repeatedly.

"What's stopping it?" Million dollar question. I turned back to Alex and shook my head, not sure how to respond. Alex walked up next to me, examining the necro like i would gets a lion examined a gazelle. Then his hand shot forward, taking the necromorph by the neck. The undead creature struggled in his grip but to no avail.

Then he slowly brought his hand and the necromorph back towards him. I watched in morbid fascination as the creature screamed bloody murder, steam rising off the skin of its chest as Alex brought it closer through the invisible barrier, the skin blackening as it passed. Alex tilted his head to the side in what had to be curiosity. The closer he pulled it the more of it that was slowly destroyed. I also noticed that the further through the field it got, the weaker the necromorph thrashed. I suppose Alex just gave up on slowly pulling the necro through, because he tossed it over his shoulder. The effect was instantaneous; the creature screamed so loud it was a wonder my ears didn't start bleeding, it thrashed with anew as it's whole body became dark as night and I could smell burnt flesh through the suits air filters. Two seconds didn't pass before the necromorph fell silent, a low hiss rising off the now burned creature.

That was when I noticed the Marker. Its once faintly glowing marks now were alive with light. Alex noticed it as well and took a step to the corpse. He reached down, took a hold of the body and threw it back out. The hiss stopped immediately as it crossed the supposed barrier, crashing against the ground. The markings held their glow for a moment before they died down.

"And the Plot thickens." I deadpanned.

"Some kind of energy field." Isaac said as he examined the Slasher corpse. "It acts as a type of barrier, apparently it only affects necromorphs. Strange."

"It all comes back to the Marker."

Alex shook his head. "We need to move."

With I sigh I shouldered the PCR and stood guard near the Marker, occasionally looking back at it.

ΩΩΩ

Kendra let out an unsteady breath, as she sat curled up in a corner of the shuttle. She looked down at her bloodied hands. She wasn't crazy. No, she was sane. Mason told her so. He was always a good boy. He told her that the monsters would hurt him. She didn't let them hurt her brother. No. No she did not. She killed the nasty monsters. Yes, yes she did. Kendra let out a mad crackle, not disturbing Kyne as he went on with his own mad ravings.

"He's really crazy." She said in a sing song voice. She turned to Jason who was standing in front of her, a wide blood filled smile on his face. Not that she noticed it, she just smiled back.

"It'll be soon right little brother? Soon we can be together right?" The bloody boy nodded, his grin never once wavering. Kendra let out another gleeful crackle as she imagined it in her head. Her, Mason, and the Marker, all together so they could go and become whole. She had to share this with everyone. Then everyone can be happy, no one would ever be sad again.

_"We've sent the Marker up."_ The comm. chirped, Alex's voice flowing through.

Kendra's blissful face cracked as she scowled, gritting her teeth as anger swept through her.

"And he will die." She muttered darkly. "Won't he Mason?" she looked up at the boy, his blood stained smile never once leaving his face.

"Yes." He said, his voice echoing across the room. "They will die, and we will be made whole." His eyes flashed a bright white, but Kendra never noticed. She just leaned back and smiled blissfully. They would die. They didn't deserve to be a part of the whole.

_"Good, I've docked the shuttle, but the display says that the automated loading are offline. We don't have time for it to be fixed so the three of you will have to shut down gravity in the hangar bay and load the Marker directly under the shuttle."_ Kyne replied.

A scoff echoed from the other end. _"Things just couldn't be easy."_ Kendra didn't recognize this voice, but figured it was the Engineer. She shook her head and looked to her right. She reached out and took hold of the javelin gun she had placed there and looked at it.

ΩΩΩ

"Rather resilient aren't they?" asked a monotone voice.

"Yes quite." Said another.

A man sitting in the center of a dark room in a metal chair took a long drag of the cigarette that was in his hand. He blew out a small cloud of smoke before looking at a screen, its display showing the three fighters, Jason, Alex, and Isaac. While the third was of no consequence, the other two were… problematic.

"Do we have any kind of intel on them?" he asked, taking another drag.

"Only that the one known as Alex Argent has an entire batch of G-XII Nanites swimming through his bloodstream. We have run a search for them but every time they come up blank, they do not originate from any universe we have thus far discovered." The monotone said.

"So they are unknowns? How interesting." Said the second. "What about the nanites? We can't possibly let the boy walk around with our technology can we?"

"I agree. It would be at all possible to terminate the boy? After all it is our tech he is using."

The seated man shook his head as he let out a smoke filled breath. "No. While it wasn't foreseen that we would be discovered so quickly, some precautions were taken to ensure we would not be tracked, as such all XII models sent into this universe were absolutely and totally cut from the network. We have no contact." He said, despite the situation he sounded completely uninterested.

"I see." The monotone said, betraying no emotion. "… and the experiment?"

"Unchanged, total success has been proven and combat effectiveness is sound. While it is unfortunate that a batch has been 'captured' we still have all the information we need."

The two voices were quiet for a time.

"That is… acceptable." The monotone said, "And these two can provide as an ongoing test. How do our forces handle against the unknown factors."

"Yes." Agreed the second, "We will leave you to oversee them."

The man nodded. "Understood."

The comm. cut and the man was alone again. He looked to the lone screen in the room, its display showing, Jason and Alex as they loaded the Marker under the shuttle. The two unknown warriors looked at the artifact for a moment before walking away. What they missed however, was a flash of green and blue on the Marker. Curious the man enhanced the image to see that a group of markings were now glowing a bright green and blue. These two colors blended together to a blue that matched the darkest depths of the ocean, and then the mixed color seemed to wrestle with the red of the Marker. The 'struggle' lasted about five seconds before the blue completely overpowered the red, washing over it like a tidal wave. The original red tried to fight back, but it was as if a deer was fighting a lion. It didn't take long until the Marker's original color was gone, replaced by the dark blue. It pulsated multiple times before the color shifted back to a dull red.

The man sat up straight, interest twinkling in his eyes; he leaned forward, tossing his cigarette to the side. He folded his hands under his chin and smirked slightly.

"How interesting."

ΩΩΩ

(Isaac P.O.V)

I groaned quietly as I rolled my shoulders, the level 5 engineering armor I was wearing gave protection, but was murder on your shoulders. I leaned against the railing slightly in an attempt to rest as Jason and Alex continued on. The door to the shuttle opened up and Kyne came running down the catwalk as it extended.

"Over here!" he yelled, waving his arms in a frantic manner. He stopped on the platform and waved over to us. With a tired sigh I pushed myself up and began to walk over behind the others to the doctor as he continued to call to us.

"Hurry, there's no time to waste, we must do it-"but his speech was cut off, when a loud 'thwamp' echoed through the room, followed closely by the sound of metal cutting through flesh. My eyes widened in horror as I saw a long rod of metal protruding from the doctor's back, and out his chest.

"KYNE!" We all yelled, breaking into a run to get to the doctor, the catwalk retracting back into the ship. Kyne collapsed to his knees and looked down at the rod protruding from his chest. Then back up, at something directly in front of him.

"Wait…" he whispered, his voice hoarse "Amelia… where are you going…" he weakly raised a hand as if trying to reach out to someone. "Wait..." He abruptly collapsed onto his side. We didn't have time to process his death however as the whole hangar shook as the doors opened, the shuttle lurched forward. We could do little more than watch as our only hope of escaping this hulk exited the ship.

Alex's RIG link came to life, Kendra's face taking up the screen, an insane smile on her face.

_"Sorry Alex." _She said, her voice unnaturally happy. _"But we couldn't let you do it."_ I heard Alex snarl viciously.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" he nearly yelled

_"Stopping you from destroying the Marker."_ She said _"Mason told me to. Now I can save our work. You see the Marker, this one was made by man from the original. It was placed here years ago and forgotten. It was lonely all that time and called out. Now here it is telling me to make the world whole." _She let out a loud laugh. _"The good doctor was right the Marker would contain the Hive mind but that doesn't matter now I have the Marker and am going to take it far, far away from here and there is nothing you can do to stop me."_ She cut the line. Probably the best thing to because Alex let out a guttural roar that made the Hydra sound like a kitten in comparison.

Then suddenly my RIG link opened up and I was shocked to the core to see the face on it.

It was Nicole.

_"Isaac! It's Nicole I need you to help me, help us! Now!"_ she said frantically. _"I'm… I'm in the flight control room! Please Isaac hurry! Please… I love you…"_ The line was cut and before I knew it myself I was running over to the control room, ignoring Alex and Jason as they called after me. All that mattered to me was that Nicole was alive.

ΩΩΩ

(Alex P.O.V)

"ISAAC!" I yelled out as the engineer ran away from us. But he didn't even give my call the light of day as he kept on running. I ground my teeth so hard I thought they would crack. First Kendra steals the Marker, kills Kyne, and now Isaac bails on us. I clenched my fist, the urge to just lash out and punch something was overwhelming, but there was nothing in reach for me to pummel save for Jason and I knew he wouldn't appreciate being punched with the amount of force I was itching to put behind attack.

_"Daddy?" _asked a small and somewhat scared voice.

Unbidden a wave of guilt smashed into me with the force of a freight train. I hesitantly looked back to my passenger, her normally bright and cheerful yellow eyes full of concern and sadness. I internally cursed at myself for upsetting her.

_"Are you okay daddy?" _Angel asked.

I sighed and shook my head, "No I'm not. Kendra took the Marker and our only way out of here. We're all trapped now." I winced slightly, it probably wasn't best to be so blunt about it but what else could I say? Kendra had beaten us.

_"It's okay daddy!"_ Angel said happily, I felt her snuggle her head closer to mine as she did so. _"Mr. Isaac will stop the bad woman. Watch."_

I opened my mouth to reply only for it to snap shut when the ship rumbled; my RIG picked up on a signal being sent out into space. Then not five seconds after the comm. opened up.

_"NOOOO!"_ Kendra yelled from the other side. _"What have you DONE! This is not over! Do you hear me!? This is not over!"_ The line cut and the computer sounded

**Escape pod away, crew shuttle USG-09. Repeat, shuttle has ejected escape pod. Returning Shuttle to hangar bay one.**

It was pure and absolute music to my ears. I grinned like a mad man and let out a loud triumphant yell.

_"Special delivery."_ Rang Isaac's voice over a newly opened comm.

"Isaac you brilliant SOB." I replied enthusiastically. A giggle echoed in my ear.

_"Told you daddy."_

"We'll check and see if Kendra jettisoned the Marker, meet us on the ship." Jason said happily into the comm.. When the shuttle docked we both were quick to get on it and check it over. To our great relief The Marker was still in the cargo hold. Not soon after we felt the ship lurch forward.

We were on our way to Aegis 7.

* * *

**Holy crap!  
**

**I'm so close! Only two more chapters and that's it for this instalment. But fret not my friends! For this shall not be the end! **

**Also what's up with the Marker? Does it have anything to do with Alex and Jason?**

**And just who is this shadowy group that plots against them?**

**Find out next time on Dragon ball Z!**

**Err... sorry, got caught up in the moment. See you next time in Brothers in Arms and Dead Space, don't forget to review! Flames will be ignored!**

**Arokhsteel out.**


	14. Dead Space

**AN: I own NOTHING**

"Necromorph!"~ Person talking

**"How could you!"**~ supremely pissed person talking

_"Incoming!/ Daddy?"_~ Person talking over comm./RIG link/ shade speech

**Please vacate the area**~ Computer speaking/text

'Be careful man.'~ Thought/telepathic communication

Chapter 13: Dead Space

(Alex P.O.V)

The ride down to the planet's surface went rather quickly. While I would have been grateful for a longer reprieve, we needed to get the Marker in its place as soon as we could. So when the shuttle shuddered and Isaac announced through the comm. we had landed I groaned halfheartedly and pushed myself upwards. We had gotten so far in so little time, not even a day had passed and now here we were on the planet's surface, about to end it. I should have been excited but I could only feel a overwhelming sense of dread as I began to walk off the shuttle, Jason following closely behind. Angel however was totally oblivious to the feeling as she hummed from over my shoulder.

I looked over to my left as I exited the shuttle, towards the massive crater. I couldn't even begin to wonder how large it was, I could however based on the video Kyne had shown us make an assumption as to what was in it. Waiting patiently, until the time came for it to rise again.

The Hive Mind.

My eyes scanned what I could see of the hole as I searched for any kind of trace for the creature. To my great relief, or frustration depending on your point of view, I found nothing to hint to the creature presence. I looked back over the facility and made a strange discovery. There was nothing. Literally nothing even remotely hinting the fact that the necromorphs had attacked this place. Not one body in sight, not one speck of blood to be seen on the floor, hell nothing even looked remotely broken. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

"Alex!" I looked over to the engineer as he pointed to the Marker, which now resided on a loader. "Give me a hand here. I don't have a kinesis module."

'Yeah I'm coming." I yelled back, as I jogged down the ramp.

'I don't like this man. I don't like this at all.' I glanced back as Jason, never once breaking stride.

'You and me both, something strange went on here.' I gave the Marker a look over, its previous bloody red now a dull red. It was strange, it didn't feel as… oppressive as it did the first time I'd seen it. It felt-

_"Different."_ I looked back at the little girl and nodded slightly. She was right it felt different but I couldn't figure out why. I shook my head once, ridding myself of the thoughts racing through my head. I activated the kinesis and a solid white line of energy enveloped the alien artifact in a silver shroud.

"The two of you will need to watch my back should anything happen. Got it?"

I looked over the Engineer and by best friend as both nodded their head in confirmation. We started our trek to the pedestal chamber. Isaac had told us that was where we needed to place the Marker, when we asked how he knew this he told us that on the ship when he ran off he had receive a call from his supposedly dead girlfriend Nicole and she was the reason we had taken the shuttle back. He elaborated that Nicole had come down with us onto the planet and had told him where to place it. It was rather strange that we never saw her, I mean both Jason and I did stay down in the cargo for the trip but we thought we would have at least seen her as we stepped off the shuttle, or that we would have at least have heard the call made to him while on the ship. Granted we weren't in the most observing of moods when Kendra had shuttle-jacked us so I guess we could have missed it.

He said that he told Nicole to stay in the nearby building which he had locked down. It was explanation enough for me so I continued to move the Marker down the loader tracks. Even as we went further into the complex we found no traces of any kind of struggle, the only thing that confirmed necromorph habitation was the thick goo that covered some of the shutter doors. But even so we didn't run into a single one of the monsters.

Now this could mean a number of things.

A.) They're waiting to ambush us.

B.) They're waiting with the Hive Mind to ambush us.

C.) They've joined to make some kind of super necromorph.

D.) The Hive Mind has become some Super Hive Mind and they will ambush us.

I wasn't particularly fond of this set of possibilities but it was what fate seemed place at the table. And if I had learned anything over this long journey, it was fate loved to screw us. Despite this we had to keep moving forward, Jason and I growing increasingly uneasy as we moved on through. Angel however…

_"I spy with my little eye…"_

I let out a sigh. "Metal." I deadpanned. I glanced over my shoulder to see the girls cheeks puff out, I imagined it was the only way she could show the pout she was attempting.

_"You didn't let me finish daddy."_ She said irritably.

"What else is there to spy?" I asked rhetorically.

_"It starts with a 'B'."_ She said in a matter-o-fact way.

Not expecting the answer I turned my head to get a better look at her. "What here starts with a 'B'?"

Angel's eyes glowed a little brighter, I guessed that she was smiling. She tightened her grip on by neck.

_"The best daddy ever!" _She exclaimed loudly, startling Jason and I.

When the surprise dissipated I chuckled lightly. "That begins with a 'T' Angel." She pouted again, and abruptly turned her head away with a dramatic 'hmph'. I couldn't help the laugh that burst out. I stiffened as I felt a set of eyes on me and I turned to look at Isaac as he looked back at me like I was crazy.

"I just remembered a funny joke just now." I lied lamely.

The engineer looked at me for a few seconds more, clearly not believing my pitiful lie before he shook his head and looked away from me. A small giggle brought my attention back to my passenger as she shook with laughter. I narrowed my eyes as I looked over the girl.

"Why you little…"

Angel's eyes closed and a new gray shape appeared where her mouth would have been. Realization hit me in an instant. She was sticking her tongue at me! I glared at the young girl as best I could from behind my helmet. This only seemed to renew her laughter. I grumbled slightly, attempting to block out the girl's continuous giggles. When we got to the pedestal chamber, which was really just a pedestal on the side of the crater., we were greeted with the sight of several mile long 'arms' waving in the air, right over the crater. The Hive Mind, was rising.

"Come on!" I yelled back to the others. "We gotta move!" I broke out into a run, dragging the loader and the Marker with me. I suddenly gained tunnel vision, seeing only the pedestal as I ran closer to it. Ignoring the sounds of gunfire as Jason and Isaac fought off some form of necromorph. When I finally made it to the pedestal I noticed that it looked similar to the Marker as it was covered in bloody red markings. I brought the alien artifact as close to the pedestal as I could and activated the loader, placing the Marker back on its rightful place. Then suddenly its dull red vanished and was replaced by a dark blue, the new color swarmed over the pedestal and annihilated the red. A vibrant green shroud covered the Marker and shot skyward, dark blue lightning danced across the artifact, then the light exploded outwards, bathing the sky in an emerald light.

Surprised by the sudden change I took a step back and turned to see Jason and Isaac just as surprised as they watched a group of necromorphs they were fighting begin to glow the very same green color. The some dozen necromorphs roared to the sky before disintegrating into dust. A rush of triumph flooded my body as I looked over the small necromorph horde. We had succeeded, I wasn't at all sure what the sudden color change meant but at that moment it didn't matter. We had won. It however was shot lived as a hoarse and terrible voice cried out.

**"ISAAC!"**

All three of us whipped around towards the sound. My eyes widened in shock at what I saw.

A silhouette of a woman, like the one we had seen with Kyne. Except where the one we'd seen with Kyne was black as night and had various alien markings in red covering her, this woman however, wasn't some dark shade covered in markings. She was glowing bloody red.

"NICOLE!"

I whipped back over to see Isaac who had abandon his gun and was running full tilt towards the glowing red woman. Then what he said finally registered in my head.

"Nicole?"

However I didn't have any time to consider what this meant as the compound computer announced

**Emergency: Geo-orbital gravity tethers offline. Tectonic load released. Impact Imminent. Evacuate this area immediately.**

What did I say about fate again?

I looked to my right to see a ram leading to an open half-circle room, glass walls covering its exposed side. Making a split second decision I shoulder tackled the charging engineer and effortlessly lifted him. He yelled at me to let him go as I carried him into the room, Jason following close behind. Isaac yelled and screamed at me to let him go but I held strong. Once inside a glass door closed down behind us, metal shutters. Isaac managed to escape my grasp and when he was on his feet threw a punch at my head. But having expected that as a possible outcome I blocked the attack and held on tight.

"She's out there!" He shouted. "Nicole was out there and needed my help! And you stopped me! Why!?"

"because there was nothing there!" I shouted back.

"The hell there wasn't! I saw here right there bright as day!"

"Isaac!" he looked to Jason. "There was no one there. You were running to empty space."

Isaac looked down slightly, "But how can that be?" he asked. "I saw her, right there. How could I have seen that?"

_"Because you're insane!" _said a gleeful voice. We all turned to see Kendra, standing just outside the glass, an insane smile on her face as the Marker, still glowing a dark blue, although she didn't seem to notice. She was too busy looking over at us.

"How'd you get back on the planet!" Jason spat.

_"What did you just think I would give up?" _she asked_ "Ha! No but your friend there is crazy. Don't believe me, then look at this." _

A RIG link opened up in front of Isaac, showing a woman who I guessed was Nicole. She said how she would have wanted to see him again, how she loved him and always did. Right before she injected herself with some unknown substance. Her face contorted to that of pain for a second before her image fell limp. Isaac's shoulders slumped as he palmed his helmet.

_"See. She's been dead all this time. You're insane. Just like Kyne, the Captain. What you saw was nothing more than your own delusion, but don't worry. It all be over soon, and the marker will be in good hands." _She turned to Jason and I._"You know, my one regret will be that I won't see your faces before you die on this planet." _She waved at us mockingly, _"Good bye. Have fun burning in hell."_ With that she jogged after the Marker. I didn't waste a second as I turned to the others.

"We need to get to the shuttle before her. MOVE!"

ΩΩΩ

When we came back to the shuttle we saw Kendra just starting to run up the ramp to the shuttle, only to stop and look at us one. That stop cost her as a massive tentacle rose from the crater and moved to swat her away. In that instant it was about to hit her I felt the nudge in the back of my mind. I activated my kinesis, warping the woman in a silver glow. I gave a solid yank and deactivated the device, causing Kendra to fly back through the air and crash right in front of me. She looked up at me hatefully. I however reached down and took a firm hold of her neck and lifted her off the ground. She gagged as I applied pressure to it and clawed at my armored hands in an attempt to remove them.

"Have fun burning in hell." Her eyes widened slightly and she struggled anew. I ended it with a quick twist of my wrist as her neck snapped like a twig. I tossed her now limp body to the side not bothering to look back at the others. I instead fought the feeling rising in my chest. Now wasn't the time to have a mental breakdown. Then another tentacle rose from the crater and surrounded the three of us, cutting us off from the shuttle ramp. Then a giant figure rose from the crater, roaring as it did.

It was the Hive Mind.

Its body was covered in a thick exoskeleton that left no visible weaknesses. It reared back and roared viciously at the three of us. Jason fired several rounds of his PCR at the creature, only for them to bounce of its shell harmlessly. He looked back at me.

'We won't be able to kill this thing fast enough to escape. We just don't have the means.'

I shook my head. 'Even if we did kill it the continent falling to us would do the job of finishing us off before we could escape. I could distract it long enough for you and Isaac to get onto the shuttle and take off.'

Jason mentally scoffed 'The hell have you been smoking to think I would leave you here to die? No if you're going down, I'm going down right with you.'

I smiled lightly from under my helmet. 'Thanks.' I turned to Isaac. 'Then I guess it's him.'

'Yep.'

"We need to kill this thing-"Isaac began but was cut off when I punched him, hard enough to daze him, then took hold of him and threw him over the tentacle blocking the shuttle and into it. Jason quickly opened his RIG and began to type furiously. When he was done, the door to the shuttle closed and the engine roared to life and propelled itself upwards. The Hive Mind regarded the rising shuttle prepared to swing a tentacle to intercept and it would've. Had I not use my kinesis to launch a sizable crate at the creature. The impact forced the massive necromorph to bend over, thus missing its opportunity as the shuttle continued to climb.

When the HM righted itself it looked down at us it roared again before becoming ramrod straight. It then leaned in and vomited all over the deck we were standing on. This was followed by a loud thud. When it pulled back we were greeted to the sight of a brute. This wasn't your average brute, no; this brute towered over us at what looked to be fifteen feet, its whole body covered in the same exoskeleton that covered the HM.

"Jason" my friend turned to look at me, "Hold it off for a bit, I need to deal with Angel." Jason seemed to hesitate but nodded and ran forward, firing his weapon at the necromorph.

I reached behind me and took Angel off from her perch.

"Time for you to go, little one." I said softly.

_"But daddy…"_ She said sadly. _"I don't wanna go! I wanna stay with you!"_ I set her down and pat her head.

"I know you but this is something daddy has to do by himself." I said softly. Angel looked down in disappointment.

_"Will I see you again daddy?" _she asked hopefully.

Against my will I felt an ache in my heart, but pushed it down. I wasn't even sure why I was doing this but it needed to be done. "Yeah." I said halfheartedly. "Sure. Promise."

She held out her hand,_ "Pinky promise?" _I grimaced but held out my hand and weaved my finger with hers. Angel nodded and said one last thing before disappearing. _"Good bye Daddy."_

I sighed heavily and looked up at the Mega-Brute as it tried to hit Jason only for him to dance out of range. The really disheartening thing was that all his rounds were bouncing off the exoskeleton. I activated my energy blades and charged in. I swung viciously, at the creature, but my blades bounced off the creature equally as harmlessly each time. We danced around the large necro for minutes, the falling continent growing ever closer as we tried to do some kind of damage. Meanwhile the Hive mind just stood there watching us as we attacked its pawn.

**25%**

I grit my teeth as the suit warned me of my energy levels, thanks to my upgrades power was eaten nearly twice as fast, and we had yet to make a dent on the necro. Suddenly though the Hive Mind screamed into the sky, it was so loud both Jason and I had to stop because the sound was so painful. This proved to be our undoing. The Mega-Brute suddenly grabbed Jason by the arm and tossed him into the Marker, his PCR flying away from him. He hit the ground with a pained thud.

"NOO!" I yelled I quickly turned and made to lunge at the monster but it caught me by my arms. It applied pressure until I could feel the weapons on my forearms crunch, signaling they were now useless to me. I pulled out of the things grip, but it took off the arms of my suit. I growled and tore my helmet of and tossed it to the side. With a roar I ran up and past the creature's massive arms and slammed a fist into its armored chest, only to find it had no effect. I snarled and began to throw a flurry of the hardest and fastest punches I could manage at the creature. After an unknown amount of quick punches I reared back and threw a haymaker. I was rewarded with the sound of the exoskeleton AND my hand cracking. My small victory was short lived as the necro grabbed a hold of me and threw me over to Jason. I crashed to the ground and rolled into the loader holding the Marker. I turned to Jason who had taken his helmet off as well, as he leaned against the loader, a tired smile on his face.

"We gave it our best shot." He said weakly, spitting out a bit of blood.

"Yeah we did. Won't be long before we're disintegrated by the rock." I replied. I looked up at the blue Marker as it pulsated. "We get to live a bit longer though." I reached up, "All thanks to this thing. Maybe it isn't that bad after all." I placed a hand on the rock. Every muscle in my body contracted as an unknown energy rushed through me, everything suddenly felt warm. The energy continued to flow until I was sure I was glowing. Slowly I stood and a violet glow surrounded me, the Mega-Brute which had stood at its place the whole time, knowing it couldn't come near us took a step back.

That would prove to be its last move. I threw my arms forward, focusing the energy forward the violet glow rushed out slamming into the necromorph and almost instantly obliterating it into ash. The Hive Mind roared again, enraged by the loss of it undead brother. I raised my hand and from behind me the Marker did as well, pulsating all the while. The tip of the artifact tilted downwards until it was facing the Hive Mind like a spear.

I grit my teeth as I felt the energy begin to leave my body but threw my arms forward, and like a bullet from a gun the Marker was launched through the air, it impacted the Hive Mind's armor and pierced it. Not a second later the necromorph roared in undeniable pain as a green light enveloped it. I however didn't see the creatures' fate as I collapsed onto the ground, exhaustion taking me. Just as I closed my eyes I saw a bright white light beginning to envelop me. Then my world became black.

ΩΩΩ

(Isaac P.O.V)

When I regained myself from Alex's punch I had found that I was already exiting the planet's atmosphere. So I could only watch as the continent size meteor fall to the planet as I got farther and farther away. When it did hit the impact was so bright I couldn't even look at it. When it had finally darkened I slumped against the wall of the shuttle. Alex and Jason, two people I hardly knew, sacrificed themselves for me. I removed my helmet, letting it fall from my fingers to the floor.

Why would they sacrifice themselves for me? They hardly knew me. Why would they die to save me? I wasn't all that important, just some engineer who had lost his girlfriend, and gone crazy over it. Why save me?

A growl brought me out of my thoughts, I turned abruptly to see Nicole, her skin gray, her eyes missing from their socked and blood covering her whole form. She looked at me for a moment before lunging at me. I cowered back throwing my hands up to defend myself. Only the assault I was expecting never came. I lowered my hands to see the ghoulish Nicole held by her neck, by a man in a gray jumpsuit, a second man standing close behind him in the same attire. The first man's hair was shaved short, a rather cocky smile adorned his face, and amusement danced in his steel gray eyes. The second man's face was covered by a short beard, a warm smile covering his face and his blue eyes were looking at me questioningly, his wavy brown hair hanging slightly in his face.

These men were Alex Argent, and Jason Steel. They had just died on Aegis 7 so that I could live. That left only one question.

Just how the hell were they here?

* * *

**Finished!**

**This installment is just about to close out, just one more chapter and then it's on to bigger things.**

**Don't forget to review!**

**Arokhsteel out!**


	15. Explanations, and Truths

**AN: I own nothing except my own lore and OC's**

"Necromorph!"~ Person talking

**"How could you!"**~ supremely pissed person talking

_"Incoming!/ Daddy?"_~ Person talking over comm./RIG link/ shade speech

**Please vacate the area**~ Computer speaking/text

'Be careful man.'~ Thought/telepathic communication

Chapter 14: Explanations, and Truths

Time became a strange thing as I floated in the dark abyss that had surrounded me since Aegis 7. Strangely it felt like I was covered in a thick pudding, it was one of the weird experiences I've had. Although the feeling I had when the nanites ripped through my system was a close second. Then suddenly the darkness was replaced by a bright light, it blinded me for a moment before my eyes got use to the light I found myself standing in a large rocky expanse.

I wasn't sure where I was but it had defiantly see much better days, the earth was scorch brown, the small number of trees that surrounded the area were black, and twisted. I found myself moving through the landscape, no real destination seemed to be clear. Then there was a type of skittering noise, the world turned and me with it to face the noise, I was shocked to see that a horse sized, black, SCORPION charging me, pincers clicking, stinger primed to kill. The scene changed again before it had any time to advance further. I was suddenly in the ruins of a city, the buildings in shambles, blood coloring the inner walls. Gunfire echoed off in the distance, screams of pain.

"FOUND YOU!" a loud and guttural voice yelled. This time I didn't get to see the origin and my surroundings warped once again until I was floating over a bay, the water clouded. What really caught my attention was the breached and decaying aircraft carrier, I only got to look at it for a split second before my surroundings warped again until I found myself in a dimly lit metal room, a small but gentle voice humming happily, I looked down at the source to see a young girl, clothed in a dirty white dress, her raven colored hair done up into a pony tail. She looked to be 5 or 7, but then I saw something familiar about her. Her glowing yellow eyes.

"Angel?" I managed to say. The young girl smiled a toothy smile

"Hi daddy." She said, her voice echoing in its usual tone.

Suddenly an impact on my chest launched me backwards and through the room until my world was black again.

ΩΩΩ

Again I was in the dark, but it was different than the one that had surrounded me moments before. This felt cold, and I could hear a steady beep somewhere off to my right. Then I became aware of the fact that my eyes were closed. With a small amount of effort I opened them, and what I saw was a stark white ceiling, I turned to my left to see Jason, now outside his armor and covered by a stark white jumpsuit, he lay unconscious on a metal bed. Just above him was a holographic display showing his heart rate, and breathing. I looked to my right to see the very same interface hovering inches above me.

"Well, look who's up" said a voice.

I held my head up to look for the origin and saw a woman of average height, light brown hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a pair of thin framed glasses that covered her light brown eyes. What she wore was your stereotypical lab coat, with a gray shirt and brown leggings. She took a few steps up to my bed her eyes never leaving me the whole time. I lowered my head.

"Where are we?" I asked as I tried to sit up, only to be stopped when the woman place a hand on my chest and pushed me back down

"Try not to move." She said gently. "The jump between universes strains the body, it would be best if you let you body rest." She looked over to the interface hovering over my head, she tapped the hologram once and it spit into a dozen other smaller interfaces, she gave each one a quick look over before her eyes returned to me.

"As for where you are." She gestured to the relatively empty room. "This is the medical bay. You and your friend are currently residing on Gateway station."

"How long have we been out?"

The woman stepped over to Jason and repeated the process with his interface. "Twelve hours." She said as she looked over the dozen screens, "It's rather impressive really," she looked at me, "Normally a jump leaves a person out of it for at least a day, yet you're up in half the time. Those nanites must have done wonders for you."

I groaned lightly and pushed myself up again, ignoring the woman's previous warning and the ache that reached through my whole body. However even that was slowly going away, probably the nanites fixing up with what was wrong with my body.

"I'm sure you already know this but, I'm Argent. Alex Argent" I held out my hand in a friendly manner, the woman smiled warmly and took it in a surprisingly firm grip.

"You're right I did already know, but it's nice to formally meet you. I'm Dr. Maria Jackson." A small groan echoed through the room and both our eyes darted to Jason's stirring form.

"Interesting." Maria said, arching a single eyebrow. "He seems to be waking as well." She glanced at me. "Maybe those from your universe are just very durable." I smiled slightly and swung myself so my legs were hanging off the bed. After a few steadying breaths I pushed myself onto my feet. With little difficulty I stood up and stretched slightly. I waited a few feet away from Maria as Jason slowly came to, when he did however things were going to get explained.

ΩΩΩ

(General P.O.V)

It took a minute for Jason to come to and when he did he was introduced to Maria by Alex. Taking no time at all to adjust to the pain just as Alex had, Jason was on his feet in just as short a time. Maria gave the two universally misplaced boys a set of clothes each, normally consisting of a white t-shirt and pair of jeans, for their feet she gave the two some combat boots and promptly exited the room, leaving the two to change into their newly given attire. When the two friends were fully dressed. When they exited Maria escorted them to a mess hall to get some food, the whole way Alex and Jason were subjugated to the gaze of every person they came across. When the y came to the mess they found it to be huge. The roof reaching up a hundred feet, the room being as long and wide as four football fields stacked next to each other, there were hundreds of people occupying an uncountable number of tables.

What the two found strangest was that humans didn't seem to be the only race inhabiting the room. There was a biped creature whose head resembled that of an ant, its whole body mint green, and looked as if it was covered in slime of a similar color, its arms were long and thin, its hands little more than three fingers with clawed tips. The strange alien was unnaturally thin, and twitched at every little sound made in the large room. Alex and Jason were informed by Maria that the alien was known as Va'kasha, a race of bipedal insectoids that were extremely sensitive to any level of heat, and lived underground near their planets core, now anyone would tell you this was a real stupid move on their part, but on their home world the further you went down, the colder it got. Once you hit the core it reached -24,000 degrees Celsius. The slime covering the Va'kasha was actually a 'cool suit' made from a mixture of saliva and other… secretions. That one statement almost killed Alex and Jason's appetite.

As the three found some plain food Maria listed off the main races that resided on the station. Once such race was the Nanarn, beings made up entirely of raw energy, due to this they were forced to inhabit specially made mechs. The Mangna, a quadruped catlike race that could manipulate electromagnetic fields. Maria said that their most distinguishing feature was that fact they ate nothing but metal or iron rich ore. The last race however Maria said that what they called themselves in their language was out of the range of the human vocal abilities. Because of this the humans of the station gave them the nickname 'Star Dragons', due to their close resemblance to the creatures.

However as the doctor informed the two on the races in the station, they were unaware that they were being watched. In a large circular room a man clothed in a dark suit, the skin on his face colored a dark brown, his head bald, piercing white eyes gazing at a screen which held the image of the three as they spoke. He did not look back as several heavy steps sounded behind him. The light cast over the form that towered over him at twenty feet to reveal the current topic for the three humans.

A Star Dragon. The beast stood high and proud on four thick limbs, its body covered in smooth gray skin, two monstrous wings at its back, its head formed in the traditional triangular shape as it sat upon a seven foot neck, from the back of its head jut out a crown of black spikes that peaked into a bone white, rows of dagger like teeth stuck out from the beasts lower jaw. Its eyes glowed an ethereal white as it looked down to the human councilor curiously, in the center of the dragon's chest lay a clear diamond shaped crystal, a bright silver light emanating from the center as if it held a star in its grasp.

"What do you think Daegor?" the dark skinned councilor asked.

Daegor, as he was now known, lowered his head until it was just above the councilors and gazed at the two boys as they conversed, blissfully unaware of their being watched. For a time the Star Dragon was silent, until a chortling laugh erupted from the great beast.

"They are interesting." His voice flowed out into the air but his mouth never moved as it spoke. "But as to if they are ready for the path you have set before them…" The dragon's head returned to its upright position "that is for them to decide. Should they choose that path, training will be needed. They did well with the downloaded skills; now their bodies must be conditioned to accept those skills." The dragon focused its gaze on Alex, "And that one." Daegor raised his front paw and pointed a clawed finger at Alex's image, "He will especially need the training."

The councilor gave the winged alien a curt nod before he turned back to the screen, he tapped the side of the image and spoke.

"Dr. Jackson." The woman on the screen stopped suddenly and held a hand up, signaling the two boys to quite down.

"_Yes sir?"_

"Could you bring Mr. Argent, and Mr. Steel up to met me. I believe it is time to fill them in on certain things."

"_Yes sir, right away."_ The councilor cut the line and watched as the doctor turned to the two and motioned for them to follow her.

"They will be here shortly." Daegor rumbled, "I think… I will stay, there is only so much one can learn from watching videos of a person." The dragon chuckled lightly, his massive frame shaking slightly. Time passed quickly as Maria lead the two through the large station. When they did arrive the two boys were greeted with the sight of the Councilor and Daegor standing on the opposite side of the room. Alex glanced back the way they had come just in time to catch Maria as she exited the room, the metal door sliding closed behind her. He turned back to the suited man and large alien beside him and shuffled his feet slightly.

Jason was the first to have spoken. "So who are you?"

The councilor turned to him. "My name is of no consequence. I am simply the human councilor on this station; you may address me as such." He said dryly.

Alex arched an eyebrow, "Great you're one of those guys."  
The councilor didn't even spare the gray eyed man a glance, but Daegor spoke as he turned his head to the man. "You'll have to forgive my associate." He said, the corners of the large reptiles mouth pulled upwards in the semblance of a smile. "I am called Daegor; I am the representative of my people. I am sure you have questions, we are here to answer them."

Alex turned to the dragon and looked at the large creature before asking, "How are you even talking?"

Daegor let out a chortling laugh his glowing eyes shining with amusement. "There are many ways for one to form speech young one. My people simply use one of the more obscure methods."

"You didn't answer the question."

The dragon's smile widened, exposing more dagger like teeth, but made no move to answer.

Jason spoke up, attempting to rein in the conversation, "When you contacted us in the beginning, you said that those from our own universe have the ability to make mental connections to other universes. But how could you know that?" The Councilor made a motion with his hand and a verity of screens appeared before the four of them. Each displaying a different image.

"To answer that we must delve into the matter of the base of your universe's ability. It would be easiest to label the ability at its base level. It has been given many names but it is widely thought of as psychic abilities, these abilities are always the same at the base, each person with psychic abilities has the innate ability to manipulate dark energy through their mind, this was how Alex," he gestured to the gray eyed man "Killed those final two necromorphs. The Marker, as far as we can tell, generates a dense field of dark energy, and as it seems the necromorphs have volatile reactions to the large quantity of dark energy. When Alex came into direct contact with the artifact, somehow it sent out a mental probe that fully activated the part of your brain that allowed you to manipulate the dark energy. You see a person who has the ability to manipulate the dark energy in nearly every case can only use their specialized version of it. Take this earth for example…" One of the screens enlarged, showing the image of a man teleporting all around the planet, with obvious ease. "Here there are humans who have the potential to teleport to any location so long as they can see their destination, or at least know where it is."

Alex arched an eyebrow, "Jumper?" he asked skeptically.

The Councilor nodded, clearly not joking. "That is what you would know it as, yes." The screen blinked out and a second replaced it with the image of a person in a black hooded robe, the person thrust out horribly gnarled and aged hands and purple lightning jumped out from his hands and danced through the air.

"The Force?" Jason asked.

The screen blinked out once again and the Councilor turned back to the two. "In every case the person in that universe could use their own specialized version of manipulation. However it is rare that a person gain the ability to manipulate dark energy on the level you did Alex. However the marker did it, it somehow gave you access to its own dark energy field, and with your newly unlocked ability, however untrained, allowed you to finish off the final beasts."

Alex and Jason looked to one another, no doubt having a discussion via the telepathic chip that was implanted in their heads. After as few seconds Alex looked back at the dark skinned man and spoke.

"How did you age us?"

The man raised an eyebrow and spoke. "We do not move time forward, as I am sure that is the foremost theory in your minds. It is best to think of it like this; when you take a step in sand you leave an imprint of your footprint. Your life is best described as you walk barefoot through a desert, each step slightly different than the rest but holding a similarity. What our device does it that it converts your body into pure energy and by using the previous 'footprints' we can predict the line your body will take and reassemble it in a solid physical form. And in this way we can de-age a person, say Alex here and have him keep his current strength. I won't go into the scientific, but basically it would be like putting on shoes and walking backwards in the same footprints."

Daegor looked down at the human, a single eye ridge raised in question, before turning back to Alex. "Grossly simplified of course." He rumbled

Alex looked around the room, "Where exactly are we?" an image sprang up in the middle of the small group of people, it first showed what Alex and Jason assumed to be Gateway station, it looked like a triple-layered spin top, a blinking white dot at the center ring, most likely signaling their current location. The image zoomed out until the station was the size of a nail and under it was the holographic image of FOUR suns under it, and from each sun a single curve line of fire reached out into what looked to be-

"A Blackhole?!" Alex exclaimed, his eyes widening.

The Councilor nodded, "Yes this system housed five stars until one of them devolved into a Blackhole. This forced its brothers into an orbit, without ever falling in. in all actuality it's a quasar, our station is absorbing the energy its projecting outwards, giving us the power for the station, and gives us the ability to move between universes."

Jason sighed. "Okay then just one more question." He said, his brow furrowing "Why us?"

It was a simple question. But yet despite himself the Councilor couldn't come up with an answer, he had spent much of his time watching them trying to figure out that very question. Yet in all his time of contemplation, he couldn't figure it out. When he had seen gone over the list of universes something had drawn him to theirs. Something had drawn his attention to the two; they stuck out, like they were pieces to the wrong puzzle. But he could not let them know this, it certainly wouldn't help his case, they would wish to return to their previous lives and he couldn't have that. A part of him screamed out that he couldn't let the two go. He shook his head lightly, ridding himself of the thoughts that plagued his mind, he would lie for now. He must, he couldn't let the two go.

"I ran multiple tests on you two, you proved to be the utmost peak of human on your earth, and that with the two of you, and we would be able to counter those who are the cause for the anomalies. You are unknowns; they will not know how to combat you." The two looked at one another, clearly skeptical with the part about them being the peak of humanity, but seemed to get the part about them being in a word secret weapons.

"I give you this choice now." The Councilor said, drawing their attention. "We need your assistance, I propose that the two of you stay, and train to become Gatekeeper agents, those we send on through to act in separate universes, and while I cannot base this on fact I feel that our success in discovering and repelling this threat is based solely on the two of you. If you do this however, you forfeit your ability to return to your original universe. You will act upon my orders. If you however decline you will be stripped of your memory and sent back to your homes as you were when you were found. This is my offer."

Alex and Jason looked between one another, thoughts racing through their heads as they weighted their decisions, If they were totally, completely, and utterly honest with themselves, the both of them wanted nothing more than to tell the man to go to hell and return them to their home. But no matter what, they couldn't help the nagging feeling that if, a rather large 'if', the man was right that if they did go back to their normal lives it would only be matter of time before something was done to their universe. The chances of it were slim at best, but they both knew that they both found that they couldn't make themselves take that chance.

It was this nagging feeling in the back of their minds that they had to do this. That this was what they were meant to do. Help save the multiverse and never see your family again, or be the sole reason for its fall.

The two friends sighed, and as they lifted their heads they spoke. "We're in."

The councilor gave a curt nod to the two. "Good. You will be trained here until we deem you ready for your next destination."

Alex tilted his head in curiosity, "And where would that be?"

A small almost completely unnoticeable smile made way to the dark skinned man's face. "Tell me." he said. "How do you feel about radiation?"

* * *

**This story is done!**

**Now Alex and Jason are going to train to become gatekeepers and fight to save the multiverse.**

**As of right now I'm going to focus on my sands of time story. I will try to get some chapters with that out there, but I hope to get the next installment out there no later than May.**

**It has been a ride and i say thank you for putting up with me and thanks for the awesome reviews you guys have been giving me. **

**I'll see you next time, don't forget to keep on reviewing.**

**Arokhsteel OUT! **


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